White Lies and Video Games
by violettheory
Summary: Carson is a painfully shy girl from North Carolina who moves to LA for school. But, the day she moves in, she realizes she shares an apartment with her favorite YouTuber, CaptainSparklez. She wants to get to know him, but she can't tell him how much a huge fan she is of him; that would be super creepy. Can she become his friend without letting him know how obsessed she is with him?
1. Arrivals and Apartments

_AN: This is a little challenge I've decided to give myself. I've read a lot of CaptainSparklez fanfiction lately, and they all seem to be mellodramatic, or surprisingly easy about how CS would react if someone obsessed with him moved in next door. So, even though I feel that writing stories about real people is weird, I wanted to give it a shot so at least _one_ CS fanfic would be lengthy, descriptive, and somewhat logical in the face of... well, creepyness. Criticism is desired, and there will be _many _chapters of this, so he will show up soon, I promise!_

I clench the strap of my shoulder bag and take a deep, bracing breath as the plane I'm in coasts to a shaky stop in LAX international airport. I've never really been afraid of planes, but I'm really nervous about being in a city as large as Los Angeles. Being just a small town girl from the piedmonts of North Carolina, LA is a huge difference from what I'm used to. I'm not just going to be here for a little while either. I'm going to be living in LA. It's the beginning of the summer, and I'm starting school at the university here in the fall, so my parents helped me get an apartment in the city, and I'm moving in now to get settled before classes start in August.

I stifle a yawn. The flight I took was a red eye; super cheap, but not easy on the sleep schedule. I managed to get a little sleep on the plane, but I am still tired, and the day is just starting here in LA. It's about 8:30 in the morning here, but it feels later. Either way, I'm still beat. While standing awkwardly in the aisle of the plane waiting to get off, I pull out my phone and shoot my mom a quick text, letting her know I got into LA safe. Everyone is still just standing in the plane's aisle. Why is the wait to get off of planes always so long? I decide to check twitter on my phone. I never tweet myself, but I have an account to follow people, mainly my favorite youtubers. Hm, it looks like CaptainSparklez uploaded a new survival video.I'll have to check it out when I get to my apartment, and set up my internet.

By the time I look up from my phone, I see the line is moving, and I'm off the plane in a few minutes, stepping into the bright light of the LA sun. I get out of the airport in no time because all I took on the plane was my shoulder bag with my laptop, phone and money in it, so I didn't have to wait to pick up any luggage. All of my belongings had already been shipped to the apartment anyway, and it's being stored in the basement storage area. Ugh, I have to move all that stuff up to my apartment today, or I'm gonna have to pay for an extra day of storage. I'd really rather not have to do that, so I'll have to start on it as soon as I get there. I unsuccessfully try to stifle another yawn. Well, maybe the moving can wait until after a nap.

Finding a cab wasn't difficult at all, and the cab fare wasn't too bad either. The apartment isn't that far from the airport, which is cool because I love seeing airplanes when they are more than tiny dots in the sky. I just hope they aren't close enough to be loud at all times of the night. Ah, who am I kidding? I'll have to deal with a lot of new noises at night now. Back at home the most I had to deal with were bullfrogs, or guineas, or dogs. Not car alarms and sirens. I guess I'll just have to learn to be a heavy sleeper.

Speaking of sleep, I'm almost ready to collapse when the cab driver lets me out at the apartment building. It's a pretty, tall, and glassy building. I suppose this means tall wall length windows in some of the rooms. That'd be nice in the living room, I suppose, but not in the bedroom. I like my dark when I sleep. I start to feel less tired when I walk into the lobby and pick up my key. The lobby is very sleek, and very modern. This building has class. I notice a couple of people wandering around the lobby, presumably tenants. Most of them seem to be college age. It makes sense, since this apartment building is very close to the campus. Plus the campus's bus route runs right by this place, ideal for anyone who didn't bring a car, like me.

Maybe I'll find a good friend in one of these tenants. I have never really had too much luck in the friends department in years past. I had friends in my classes in high school and such, but they were only that, friends in high school. I never really did anything with them outside of the classroom. The one friend I did hang out with a lot moved to a different high school freshman year, and we kind of lost touch. I guess I was never really outgoing enough back in North Carolina, but no one knows me here. They don't have to know I'm shy! I can reinvent myself! But, uh, maybe I'll do that later. Right now I just want to see my new apartment. I've only ever seen pictures of it on the apartment's website, and I want to see it in person right now.


	2. Sightings and Doubts

_AN: thanks for all the views and reviews on the last chapter. The eponymous CS shows up in this chapter! Well, sort of. Unless otherwise denoted with an "AN:" all italics are inner thought. I hope you enjoy all the insight to the character. I feel it gives her a lot more depth than typical CS fanfic girls. Thanks for reading!_

My place is on the fourth floor, which isn't bad at all, considering I can easily handle the stairs if the elevator is down. I just hope that doesn't happen often, but the building looks so nice and well taken care of, why would it? I finally get into my apartment, and gasp. It's so spacious! I knew what the layout would be, but it's kind of hard for me to translate dimensions into actual size in my head. I really didn't picture it to be this big. The living room is of a decent size, with a dining area right behind it, connected to a balcony. The kitchen is absolutely gorgeous and huge, and I am definitely going to be doing a _lot_ of cooking in there. I love it already, and I haven't even seen all of it yet! I wander into the bedroom and find it pretty plain, but it's a nice size. Plus, it doesn't have huge windows, with nice blinds. I can keep it dark in here if I ever need to oversleep. The bathroom adjacent is tiny but functional, and the closet is pretty big, I can walk into it, and spread my arms out. Nice. Weird, I notice some kind of strange utility box in here; it's a white panel on the wall. I open it up and see a bunch of switches, buttons and plugs. I have no idea what those do, so I don't touch them. I'll just have to look up what they do on the website. There's one more room in the apartment, and it's a slightly smaller bedroom. I don't have any roommates, and I don't plan on getting any, so I guess I'll make it an office of sorts. I can put a desk and a bookshelf in here. Ooh, maybe I can even put an easel in there! But I'm thinking way ahead of myself. I need to get everything into the apartment before I can start thinking about decorating.

It's about 9ish right now, and I consider taking a nap, but seeing the apartment has gotten me so excited with ideas about how to decorate it, that I don't think I need sleep. I do, however need food. It feels like noon right now for me, and noon means lunch. My stomach growls in agreement. Luckily for me, I saw a Panera Bread, one of my favorite cafes, on the way here in the cab. It was only a block or two away. Panera Bread is perfect, because I can get my favorite sandwich, and have internet to watch CaptainSparklez's new survival video. I grab my keys and laptop bag, and head out my door. I take the elevator down to the lobby and pause. I wonder if there is one of those interactive touch screen maps they sometimes have in hotels. Maybe I could find Panera easier if there was. As I glance around the lobby, I notice someone coming in the lobby doors, and freeze.

Oh. My. God! Is that CaptainSparklez? _The_ CaptainSparklez? Jordan Maron, the best, cutest, funniest, and most adorable Minecraft Youtuber around? There's no way. There's no way I ended up in the apartment Jordan lives in, but this guy is definitely coming into the building, with a paper bag and some sort of hot drink in a coffee cup. It can't be him. Is it him? I look closer at him. Medium brown, incredibly fluffy hair, check. Fairly short stature, appealing thick stubble, check. The only thing left to check are his eyes, he hasn't looked up from his phone yet. Wait, he glanced at the elevator! His eyes are so dark brown, they almost seem black. Check. Holy crap, it is him! I'm living in the same building as CaptainSparklez! I need to go say Hi!

Wait. No. What am I going to say? "Hi, I'm a huge fan of your videos, and I just moved into the same building as you?" _Yeah, that doesn't sound stalkery at all, Carson_. Maybe I could fail to mention I'm a huge fan of his? That would be considerably less stalkery, but how would I justify running across the lobby to say hi to him before he disappears into the elevator? By this point in time he's already crossed the lobby to go wait for the elevator, and I look away in fear that he'll turn around and see me staring at him from across the room. That would be super creepy. I pull out my phone and fiddle with it while trying to figure out what to do.

_ What about being outgoing, Carson? You said you would reinvent yourself. No one here knows you're a total dork, not even him. _I mentally tell myself to shut up. I look back at him, and he's getting into the elevator. I look away before our eyes lock awkwardly or something. I wonder what floor he lives on? _No, Carson, you're being stalkerish again. _I sigh, and start to head out of the building. Maybe that's not Jordan Maron. Maybe it's just his doppelganger. His look alike. I mean, I haven't heard his voice yet. Yeah, it's probably just someone who looks a lot like him, right? I mean, what are the odds that I moved into the same building as my number one favorite Youtuber?

My thoughts carry me down the sidewalk, and I almost pass the Panera Bread. I'll have to be more careful daydreaming. I don't know this city at all, and I could definitely get lost easily. I make my way into the café, and, even though it feels like lunch to me, I have to order breakfast. After all, it's not even 10 yet. After I get my croissant and bagel, I find a comfy place to sit next to an outlet so I can charge my laptop. It's almost dead after the flight. Almost on autopilot, I begin to load up CaptainSparklez's new video, but then I remember that I MIGHT LIVE IN THE SAME BUILDING AS HIM. God, how am I so absent minded? I have to find some way to prove to myself that he doesn't (or possibly does) live in the same apartment building as me. I consider asking on Tumblr if anyone knows where he lives, but that's just creepy still. Plus, what if he checks his Tumblr tags? Unlikely yes, but if he sees that some random chick says she's living in the same building as him, then later meets a painfully shy, nerdy girl who is probably obviously trying not to fangirl at him, then he'll know I know who he is and I'll be a creep for life!

God, maybe I'm overthinking things. Maybe it isn't CaptainSparklez that I saw. I mean, part of me hopes he is because he is amazing, and part of me hopes he isn't, because then I won't have to worry about being a creep. I have to find out if it is him. But how?

Then I see in the related videos on the survival video I was loading up is the apartment tour he did for his 2 million subscriber special. That's it! I'm pretty sure all the apartments in the building have similar if not the same layouts. I can re-watch that tour and see if we do live in the same building! It's been forever since I've watched that particular video, and now, loading it up again, I'm very nervous. This video could determine whether or not I live in the same building with a guy I fangirl over almost every day. I still haven't figured out how to deal with meeting him. I want to meet him, but what could I say? I'm not the kind of person to walk up to people and introduce myself to them. _But maybe you should be. _Ugh.

Honestly, I have no idea what to say to him. Maybe we won't even have to meet each other. But that's creepy too, obsessing over this guy and never even talking to him even though you potentially live in close proximity to each other. It would be creepy, but he wouldn't have to know about it. Finally, I decide to just avoid him like the plague until I can think of something good to say to him. I want to know him. I mean, he's Jordan Freaking Maron, but I just feel like I'll totally eff up, or dork out. One of the two.

Finally, the video is all loaded, and I take a deep breath, and then hit play. Well, the entryway looks similar. Looks like the same tiling too. Oh, that looks a lot like my bedroom. And bathroom. And closet. Oh god. There's that weird panel in my closet, too! Can that be a coincidence? I hope so, and I hope not at the same time. After watching Jordan nerd out about that panel for a while, he finally walks into the living room and that seals the deal for me. It's the exact same. It's all the exact same. Unless there is a lazy building contractor running around LA, we live in the same building. Oh god.

I immediately hold in a fangirl squeal, and plaster a goofy smile on my face. I have the potential to meet Jordan Maron! And not in a fan meet up, where I'm sure he forgets almost every face he sees. I don't blame him, I probably would too. But that's where it has to be different. I can't be a fan to him. He has literally _millions_ of those. No I'll have to be something different. I'll have to be his neighbor.


	3. Boxes and Elevators

_AN: I'm really appreciating all the reviews and follows, guys. Really, it makes me very happy to know people like my work. Anyways, CS shows up in this chapter for more than 30 seconds! Huzzah! Enjoy!_

I plop myself down on the bed in my apartment. I made it back to the building without getting lost or anything and I didn't see_ him_ either, which is good, because honestly I don't look my best, and I still don't know what to say to him. God, this whole situation is so weird. With food in my stomach, I'm finally feeling tired again, and I decide an hour or two nap can't hurt me, even though the bed has no sheets. I'm not a picky sleeper, and I'm tired so I really don't care. I'll get started moving stuff into my apartment after noon.

After the alarm I had set goes off at one, I get up, and I feel better. A lot more rejuvenated. I'm about to slip on my shoes and head down to the storage area to start moving stuff up to my place, but I stop myself. I know I plan on avoiding seeing Jordan, but what if I do? Even if he just notices me and we don't say anything, I still want to look better than the bed head I have going on right now. Luckily, I wore one of my cutest pairs of shorts today with my simple blue shirt with a kitty in a takeout box on it. It's casual, but fairly nice looking. I have to do something about my hair though. My dark brown waves are frizzy and all over the place, but all my hair products are in storage. Luckily, I keep a hair brush and hair ties in my purse all the time, so I brush the heck out of my hair. It falls a little softer around my face now, but I'm still not satisfied, so I put it into a loose ponytail right under my left ear. This way the messy waves look more like curls, and it looks a little more sophisticated. Last, I put on a little eyeliner and mascara, because I always look too pale when I don't. Finally, I feel confident enough to go out, but I grab my iPod and my big chunky, purple headphones first. I slip my headphones over my head, put my iPod on shuffle, and head out.

I take the elevator to the basement, and easily find the storage area. I use the extra key the doorman gave me to unlock the fenced off area, and find all my things there, including the boxed furniture my parents bought me from Ikea. I'll have to set that up eventually too. I pick up the box nearest my feet, and man it is heavy. It must have shampoo and hair products in it. I don't think I could stack another one on top, so I start to head toward the elevator. The people I saw in the lobby generally looked like good people, and I doubt any of them would try to steal any of my crappy furniture anyway, so I leave the storage area unlocked. When I get back in the elevator I set the box down and push the 4 button. The elevator takes only about 20 seconds to get to the fourth floor, so I have to pick my box up right away again. I make a mental note to not bother setting whatever I have down next time. I do have to set the box down to unlock my door though. That's a pain. I take the box into the bathroom and open it up. Yup, it's hair products. I'll put it all away later. I take my laptop and other valuables and decide to hide them in the kitchen cabinets that way I can leave my apartment unlocked for the duration of the moving. Still listening to music, I close the door to my place and make my way back down to the basement.

There's so much stuff in here, it'll take all day to do this box by box. Even if I take several at a time it'll still take forever! I find a couple of fairly light boxes and stack them up. I wonder what's in them? I open the one on the top, and find a bunch of my clothes. My Minecraft anatomy of a creeper shirt is on top. Ha, maybe I'll wear that one day, and if Jordan sees me in it he'll start a conversation! I'll have to not mention watching his videos, though. Well, I'll only do that when I figure out what I could say to him. I lift up the three boxes, and they aren't that heavy, but I have to rest the bottom one against my stomach; causing the top two to obscure my vision. Oh well, it won't take long before I can set them down again. I go over to the elevator and push the call button with the back of my hand, not letting go of the boxes. When I get inside I do the same with the fourth floor button, and then lean against the back wall. After a few seconds I can see the doors open out of the corner of my eye, and I walk briskly out of the elevator, promptly running smack into someone. Whoever I run into is steady, balanced, and strong, because it feels like they barely move while I stagger back and drop my boxes, the top one spilling all its contents to the floor. Great. Immediately I start to apologize before I even look up.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry, I was just moving my… stuff…" Holy shit. _Ho-ly shit_. It's him. It's Jordan. Did it have to be him I just ran smack into? Why, Karma, why do you hate me so? I instantly start to feel my face redden, while my eyes lock with his gorgeous deep brown eyes. I push my headphones off my head and down around my neck, and I think I'm trying to stammer out the rest of my apology, but I'm not sure if it's words coming out of my mouth, or drool. Oh god, don't be drool. I close my mouth, and he smiles at me, I think letting me finish. My face gets redder.

"I- uh, I just moved in today, and I'm trying to get all my stuff from the storage downstairs. I'm sorry I couldn't see you around my boxes."

"It's fine. Sorry I made you drop all of them." Holy crap, his voice. It's so much better in person than on the internet! I'm about to bend down to start picking the boxes up, but he sticks out his hand. "I'm Jordan, by the way." _Don't you dare say "I know."_ I take his hand and shake it. Oh my god his hands are so warm and soft. I hope mine aren't sweaty.

"I'm Carson." I smile at him, and amazingly, he smiles back. I glance down at my clothes on the floor, and his eyes follow mine.

"Oh, here, let me help you with that," he says, bending down to start picking up the clothes scattered around us. Thank god there were only t-shirts in that box. Oh my god, t-shirts. My Minecraft shirt is somewhere. I'm not ready to have that conversation yet! I quickly scan the floor for the creeper shirt, and I see it is right at his feet. I contemplate trying to get it before him, but that would be awkward. He picks the shirt up and looks at it. Oh, god, here comes the question. _Don't mention Youtube videos. Don't mention Youtube videos._

"Oh, cool. Do you play Minecraft?" He asks, smiling widely. His smile gives me confidence. _I can do this. I can talk to him and not be a creepy fangirl._

"Yeah, I do," _Be social. Go on. _"I've been playing since 1.6 beta, mostly on single player. I've never really found a server I liked. I suck at PVP." I trail off and bite my lip. I hope it didn't sound like I was blabbing on. _Say it. _"Uh, do you play?" Immediately I regret saying it. What if he mentions his Youtube channel? I'm an okay liar, but not when put under pressure like that. If he asks if I ever heard of him, I don't think I'll be able to say no.

"Yeah, I play a lot, actually. Mainly on servers with friends, but I play SSP sometimes too." He replies. I manage to hold in my sigh of relief; it looks like I won't have to lie to him yet. I'm surprised, honestly. If I had two million subscribers, I'd probably tell everyone I meet. I guess he's just not much of a boaster.

"That's cool." I'm not really sure what to say next, but by this point Jordan's already handed me all the clothes he's picked up, and I've stuffed them back in the box. He stands, holding the other two boxes. I stand as well. I try to gesture awkwardly for the boxes he's holding, but I don't think he sees. I clear my throat.

"Well, uh, I've really got to get going. I have to get all my stuff up out of storage before tonight so I won't have to pay an extra fee…" I try to gesture for the boxes again, but he won't take his eyes off my face. I blush a deep red again. Why does he have to be so overwhelmingly handsome?

"You're moving all your stuff by yourself?" He asks, his eyebrows raising the tiniest bit in disbelief. Lost in his eyes like this, I don't think I'd manage any words, so I just nod my head. He pauses for a moment, almost as if debating something, and then says "Well, would you like some help?"

He wants to help me? He'd be willing to spend all day with me, helping me lug my junk up to my apartment? Maybe not. I'm sure he's just being polite. "Oh, oh. Well, yeah, but I couldn't possibly ask that of you. It'd take all day!" I'm pretty sure I'm still as red as a tomato.

"Well, if it takes both of us all day, then it would surely take you longer. And trust me; I know how much it sucks having to pay that extra storage fee. It's practically robbery." Wow, I guess he does want to help me. Am I ready to spend all day with him though?

"Thank you, but I don't want to keep you from wherever it was that you were going." Aw, who am I kidding? I totally want to spend all day with him, even if it is lugging all my crap around. Plus, I really wouldn't mind getting this done quicker. I smile at him encouragingly, hoping that he understands that I really do want his help.

"Oh, I was just going to check my mail, but I can do that whenever."

"O-okay, yeah, I'd love the help. Thank you." Still red as a tomato.

"No problem." He glances down at the boxes he's holding. "So, I guess you want to put these up, huh?" He looks around the tiny lobby-ish area we are standing in. "Which apartment are you moving into?"

"Oh, I'm in this one, over here. 406." I walk over to my apartment to our right, and he follows. I shift the box to my side, and hold it with one arm while I open the door with my free hand. I hold the door open for him, and he walks past me. "Welcome to casa del Carson. It's not much, but, ya know, still moving." Jordan chuckles in response. "These boxes are all clothes, so they should go in the bedroom, over here." I start to lead the way, but Jordan walks ahead of me and into the bedroom. I look at him quizzically after he sets the boxes down on the floor.

"Ha, sorry. This is the exact same layout as my apartment, so I already knew where the bedroom was." He says, shrugging, and amazingly, blushing a little. Oh my god, I made CaptainSparklez blush! I really should stop calling him that. He's just Jordan now.

"That's fine." I smile at him, and set my box down too. "Hey, do you live on this floor?" I ask, walking out of the room, and heading to the front door.

"Yup. I'm in 402, just across the hall." We walk out of the apartment, closing the door behind us, and go over to the elevator. Jordan pushes the call button, and we wait in silence, somewhat awkwardly. _Come on Carson, you really want him to like you. He won't like you if you can't hold up a conversation. Say something!_

"So, uh, how long have you lived here?" I ask him, fidgeting with my headphone cords. I really should have left those in the apartment.

"Oh, for about six or seven months, although you couldn't tell that by looking in my apartment. It has furniture, but almost no decorations. The walls are pretty bare." I know all of this, of course, but I try to act slightly surprised anyway.

"Really? Man, as soon as I walked into my apartment this morning I was already thinking of how I was going to arrange everything, and I didn't even have anything in there yet…" I trail off and smile at him, and he smiles back. _Wow. He is so cute. _The elevator arrives, and Jordan steps back, holding an arm out toward the elevator.

"Ladies first," He says, winking. _Oh my god he winked at me._

"Why thank you," I say, walking past him into the elevator. "What a gentleman." He steps into the elevator and smirks, but replies with nothing. I press the button for the basement and the doors close.

I'm not sure if it's because we still barely even know each other, or if it's the small enclosed space we are both in, but as soon as those doors closed, the atmosphere changed. Dramatically. It feels a lot… warmer in here than it did when I was in here by myself, and it's almost as if I'm hyper aware of Jordan's presence next to me. Is he feeling the same thing, or am I just crazy because I've literally obsessed over him in the months past and now I'm finally with him? Alone. In an elevator.

I look over at Jordan, and see him staring straight ahead. He's gripping the railing behind him quite tightly, and his jaw looks very tense. Is he upset to be in here with me? I'm hurt for a second, but then he turns to me, and offers me a weak smile. I can tell from the almost pained look in his eyes that he's feeling the exact same thing as I am. I try to think of something to say, anything to say to break the awkwardness, but the elevator comes to a halt, and the doors open. Immediately the atmosphere feels a lot less heavy. I take a deep breath; I hadn't realized I had been holding it. Silently, Jordan gestures for me to go first, and I oblige. _So chivalrous. _

I walk over to the storage area and open the fence door. Why does it feel like it's been years since I've been down here? It's been, like, fifteen minutes, max. I blame Jordan. I step inside, and _damn_ there is a lot of stuff in here. I look back at Jordan, and it looks as if he's waiting for me to tell him to do something.

"Well…" I say, dragging out the "L" sound, "it doesn't look like there is any rhyme or reason to this, so, just grab a couple of boxes, I guess?" I shrug, and bend down to pick up a box close to me. "Woah, this one's heavy. What's in it?" I'm about to set it back down to see what's in it, but Jordan comes over and takes it from me.

"I can get it," He says, and it looks like he can. He's not struggling with the box at all. Damn he's strong.

"Thanks," I grab a couple of different boxes that aren't quite so heavy, and walk out to the elevator. Jordan pushes the button for us, and we stand there and wait. Another awkward elevator ride. I look back toward the storage area, and realize that this is going to be a really long day.


	4. Chinese Food and Movies

_AN: Thank you guys so much for all the kind reviews. I'm glad you guys like it so much. Anyway, these chapters have finally caught up to me. You see, I've had these first four chapters written for a while, and have just been releasing them each day. I'm working on the fifth chapter right now, but I've had the story planned out until that point for a while. Now I'm not exactly sure what to write. I have different ideas for some different cute awkward events, but I'm having trouble figuring out how to connect them. Anyone with ideas is free to PM me! Therefore, the next chapters will be updated more slowly than these first four were. So, more cuteness! Enjoy!_

I laugh at one of the jokes Jordan just told about his friends Mark and Nick. We are sitting on the floor in my living room attempting to put together my couch from Ikea. He's a lot better at this than me. I'm basically just holding things in place for him and handing him tools. He's such a manly man. Anyway, we've already moved all my stuff up from the storage area, successfully avoiding an extra fee, which is awesome. After the first few times going back and forth between my apartment and the basement, the awkwardness stopped, and we fell into some easy conversation. I told him about North Carolina (he was quite surprised that I've moved such a long way just for school) and he's told me all about his friends and favorite video games. Surprisingly enough, he still hasn't mentioned the fact that he's a major internet celebrity. Maybe he just wants a relationship that doesn't have anything to do with his Youtube career? I'm really glad I decided to keep from him that I'm a huge fan of his. But, now I feel like, if he does decide to bring it up, I'd be able to react appropriately. With shock and awe, of course, but I wouldn't lay it on too thick. That would be weird.

I'm also slightly surprised that he hasn't left yet. Not that I don't absolutely love his company, but as soon as we lugged the last Ikea furniture up to my place (a boxed desk for my office) he set straight away to building it, not even mentioning that, according to his offer much earlier in the day, that he would be done with me. I'm not complaining. By this point we have a desk and bookshelf built, and we are working on the couch for the living room now. It's a nice, tasteful, black and cream color. I think it will look nice in here.

"So, then, Nick punched Mark off the platform, and he died in the pit of creepers. We never got the stuff back, and we had to start the map over. It was hilarious." Jordan says, waving his allen wrench around for emphasis.

I laugh and reply "I'm sure it was! But weren't you mad at Nick?"

"Nah, he does that kind of shit all the time. Me and Mark have just learned to take it all in stride." He chuckle-sighs and tightens one last nut on the bottom of the couch. I stand up and help him flip the couch over. We move it to the place I want it, and we stand back to look at it. It looks amazing, I love it! I turn around and give Jordan a high five, laughing, then immediately fling myself onto the couch.

"Oh, my god, this couch is amazing…" I stretch out, sigh, and then sit up. Jordan's still standing in the middle of the room, smirking at me. "Stop smirking and sit on it, dang it!" I say, gesturing for him to come sit next to me. He walks over and plops down on the couch, and smiles.

"Wow, this is comfy."

"Yeah… Man, I could fall asleep right here. What time is it?"

Jordan looks at his phone. "It's 7:16."

I sit up straight. "Oh my god, already? I'm starving… Hey, let me buy you dinner, as thanks for helping me move and build everything." I put my hand on his shoulder and smile at him, really trying to get thanks to drive itself home. I really honestly would not have been able to do any of this without him.

"Oh, well, you don't have to do that, it was no problem."

I keep my hand on his shoulder, and try for my very best puppy dog face. "Please let me buy you dinner. It's the least I can do." More puppy dog eyes.

"Okay, fine. I guess I can't turn down a free meal."

"Yay!" I jump up off the couch, and immediately go looking for my wallet. "You know, it's not really a free meal. You certainly worked for it." I say, gesturing around my apartment.

He gets up and follows me into the kitchen, leaning on the bar. "Yeah, I know, but I had fun doing it. Anything for a new neighbor." He winks at me. Again!

I smile and lean on the bar as well. "I had fun too…" I pause and fidget with my wallet. "Do you, uh, do you get a lot of new neighbors?" Maybe this is just something he does for everyone he meets that needs helping moving stuff. Maybe I'm not something different to him.

"No, not really. I especially don't get new neighbors that try to plow me down with an armload of boxes." He says, punching me playfully on the arm. I laugh and rub my arm in mock pain.

"Hey, I said I was sorry about that. Besides, plowing into you was what got me all this awesome help! I really couldn't have gotten any of this done by now if it weren't for you. Thanks, Jordan." I say, smiling sweetly at him.

He smiles back. "Like I said, it was no problem. So, what are we going to eat?"

"Uh, do you know of any good take out places around here? I don't feel like going out anywhere."

"Carson, I'm a single guy living by myself, of course I know good takeout places!" I laugh at his joke, but I can't believe I hadn't asked him if he was single yet! I just assumed. Well, it's better to know later than never, right?

We agree on Chinese food, and Jordan gives me the number to his favorite Chinese place. I get sweet and sour pork with fried dumplings. Jordan gets chicken lo mein with eggrolls. We hang out in the kitchen while we wait for the food, and talk more about Jordan's video game adventures with his friends. He even mentions Adams a few times, which I'm sure would have elicited a "Hey, by the way, me and Adam are super famous on the internet" but he never said anything like that. He even invites me to play Minecraft with them, and he says he would teach me how to be good at PVP, yeah, good luck at that. Any time someone attacks me in Minecraft, I just start freaking out and swinging randomly in all directions. I'm horrible at it!

Jordan says that he could get me on his and his friend's server tomorrow night, and we could all play together. I'm slightly worried that Mark or Nick will mention being Youtube celebrities, but, like I said, I'll be prepared for it. But seriously, I can't wait to hang out with them on their server! I don't think that anyone has ever gotten on their server except for the three of them, and maybe Adam. I'm going where no fangirl has ever gone before!

Okay, that sounded really creepy. Honestly, I'm Jordan's friend now. At least, I'm pretty sure I am. We hung out all day, and I have an exclusive invitation to his private server. Yeah, I'm definitely his friend. I can't be a fangirl anymore. Well, maybe a little, as long as no one else knows.

Anyway, we continue talking about the newest versions of Minecraft, and the things we like about it when the Chinese food finally arrives. I race Jordan to the door, because he wants to get there first and pay, but I manage to beat him. Sticking my tongue out at him, I pay the delivery guy, and take the food into the kitchen and sit down at the bar to start eating. This food is delicious! Jordan was right; this is a great Chinese restaurant. Our conversation carries easily throughout the meal, but when we finish, I lean back and yawn.

"Tired?" Jordan asks.

"Yeah, I am. Being a part of the 'Moving and Furniture Building Club' is exhausting" I say, giggling.

"Hey!" He says, waving his fork at me. "The first rule of 'Moving and Furniture Building Club' is you don't talk about 'Moving and Furniture Building Club'!"

I laugh and say, "I freaking _love_ that movie!"

"What, Fight Club?"

"Yeah, it's like, the best movie _ever_."

"Hm, ya know, I've never seen it." Jordan says, lying his fork back down on his plate.

WHAT. This is unacceptable. "You're kidding, right? Everyone's seen Fight Club. I mean, it's only the greatest movie on the whole freaking planet." I say, leaning forward, my eyebrows raised in outrage.

Jordan rubs the back of his neck, looking slightly embarrassed. "Well, uh, no, I've never seen it. I've kind of wanted to, but I never got the chance…"

"Well, it's settled then." I say, sitting up straight. "You have to see it. It's a rite of passage, you know."

"Okay, but, I'm not sure how-" He says, but I jump up and dash into my office, where all of the boxes with my electronics and such are currently residing before they are all sorted and put up. I find the box with all my dvds, and rummage until I find my cherished Fight Club dvd. Grinning like a mad man, I run back into the kitchen, and hold my movie aloft proudly.

"You see? I have the movie! We can watch it right now…" I say, but I turn around toward the living room, and remember that I don't have a TV. Or a dvd player. Wow, I'm dumb. "Oh. Oh, okay. I don't have a tv. Well, uh, sorry. I don't think it would be that much fun to watch it on my laptop…" I say sadly, setting the movie down on the kitchen counter. Jordan picks it up.

"Well, I've got a tv. We can watch it in my apartment if you'd like." He says, smiling at me. Oh my god, in his apartment? I try really hard not to "squee" and manage to succeed.

"Oh my god, yay! That would be awesome, thank you! You are going to love this movie so much!" I pause. "Wait, you don't know the twist ending, right?"

"Uh… no?"

"Yeah, you are going to love this movie!" I almost literally jump for joy, and shove the case into his hands again. "Okay, you go get the movie ready, I'll be over in a sec. I've got to call my mom and let her know I've moved in okay."

Jordan gets up from his seat and laughs at the sight of me practically buzzing in place. "Wow, you're excited, aren't you?"

"Fight Club is an amazing movie, but it's not every day that you get to share the experience of seeing it for the first time with someone. So yeah, I'm excited, and you should be too!"

"Alright, alright. I'll go get the movie ready, see you in a bit." He says, leaving my apartment. I smile and run to my bedroom. I want to put on pajamas, but that might seem a little bit… sleazy. I decide to put on a pair of pink yoga pants and a gray tank top, though. It's super comfortable, but can still pass for normal clothes though. I brush my teeth to get the taste of Chinese out of my mouth, and go back into the kitchen to clean up the plates. I pull out my phone to call my mom, and then it hits me.

Oh my god. I'm going to be watching a movie with Jordan, in his apartment, alone, in the dark. Holy crap, already? I just met him today, but we did become fast friends. Yeah, just friends. I'm sure nothing funny will happen, right? Certainly not; we're just going to watch a movie. No cuddling or anything. Just. Friends.

Still, I can't help but feel super nervous. My stomach is in knots, and my heart is beating fast. But, I can't keep the man waiting. I have to get over there soon. I finish putting everything away, and call my mom.

"Hello…?" My mom says, she sounds tired. Oh crap, I forgot the time difference. They'd be asleep by now. Damn, I'm tired too. It's probably 11 or so there.

"Hey mommy. Sorry I woke you up, I forgot about the time difference."

"Oh, baby! It's fine, I wanted to hear from you. How are you? Did you get moved in okay? How do you like LA? Did everything go okay?" Well, she sounds awake now. Of course I immediately get hit with a barrage of questions. My mom is just like that. I can tell she's worried about me, and misses me, so she wants to know everything I've done. I tell her briefly about my day, and when I tell her about how I got a guy to help me move she's immediately interested.

"Ooh, a boy? Is he cute? Do you like him?" Ugh.

"Mom! I just met him, and he offered to help me move my stuff. We're just friends."

"Well, that was awfully nice of him. Just friends, huh? Well, you'll have to keep me updated on that; it sounds like you want it to be something more." God, my mom can read me like a book sometimes.

"Haha, okay mom, I will. I've got to go put away clothes now," I lie, but I don't feel like getting some sort of questioning if I say I'm going to watch a movie with Jordan. "Tell everyone I miss them. Love you, talk to you later mommy."

"I love you too sweetie, be safe."

"I will, bye." I hang up the phone, and head to the door. _Okay, Carson. Just stay calm. Be cool, and don't fucking throw yourself at him. It's just a movie. Keep a friendly distance. _Oh, god, I'm so nervous. I take a deep breath, and cross the hallway and stop in front of Jordan's door. 402. Should I knock? It would be polite. I knock twice, and stand back, clasping my hands in front of me. After a few seconds Jordan opens the door and smiles at me. It looks like he's changed too. He was wearing a black t shirt and khakis, but now he's wearing a white shirt and basketball shorts. It looks comfortable. He stands back and holds an arm out, gesturing for me to come in.

"Welcome to casa del Jordan." He says, laughing a bit. "It's not much, but, ya know, lazy."

I laugh at his reference to my joke earlier in the day. "Why thank you," I say, stepping into his apartment. Wow, it's so… white. It seems like everything in here is white. The only thing with any color in the whole place is the kitchen with its dark cabinets and granite countertop.

"Wow, very… White." I say, reiterating my thoughts aloud.

"Haha, yeah. It's pretty colorless, but I like it. It's kind of calming." Jordan says, sitting down on the pristinely white couch. He pats the place next to him, and I sit where he indicates. I can see that the movie is already put in and is on the menu screen. I cross my legs and lean forward, getting comfortable. _Don't lean on Jordan._

"Are you ready to watch Fight Club?" He asks, waving the remote at me. I snatch it from him, and try to locate the play button.

"I sure as hell am, but are you?" I ask, waving the remote in a similar fashion.

"I am, but with all this fuss you're making about it, it better be amazing."

"Oh, trust me. It will be the best movie you've ever seen. Some time I'll have to make you read the book."

"There's a book?" Jordan asks, cocking his head at me. I just face palm. He laughs.

"Ooh, can we turn the lights off? This is the kind of movie that requires all your focus."

"Uh, sure." Jordan gets up, and turns off the lights. He comes back to the couch and sits down next to me, taking the remote back, and I realize that sitting together in the dark is going to be a lot like the first awkward elevator ride we had together.

I'm really acutely aware of his presence right next to me. He hits play, and the movie starts. I turn to him and smile excitedly, hoping to alleviate some of the awkwardness. He smiles easily back, then looks toward the movie once again. Huh, maybe I'm the only one feeling the awkwardness this time. Maybe he really is focusing on the movie, and isn't paying me any attention. That's fine, I really do want him to like Fight Club, but I feel like I won't be giving it my full attention tonight. I can feel Jordan shift, and he puts his arm on the back of the couch right behind me. Yup, I definitely won't be paying this movie my full attention now. I blush in the darkness, and am thankful that he can't see it.

A few minutes into the movie, I feel confident enough to stop leaning forward, and I lean back against the couch. The back of my neck touches Jordan's arm, but he doesn't move it or flinch away or anything. I take that as a comforting sign, and stay in that position. We watch the first half hour of the movie pretty silently, with the occasional laugh or gasp. Jordan would sometimes ask "Who was that?" or "What is he going to do?" But I would always just reply with a "Just keep watching…" and a sly smile.

I'm interested in the movie, like I always am, but it's late. Well, it's not really late here, but it's late back in North Carolina, and that is where my circadian rhythm still lies. I yawn quite a few times, but Jordan says nothing. Eventually I get too tired to hold my head up, so I slouch a bit so I can lean my head fully against his arm, and still see the movie. Jordan still doesn't flinch or move, so I'm assuming he's cool with it. I glance at him, and he is still enthralled in the movie. I hope he likes it, but it's hard for me to pay attention anymore. My eyes start to close involuntarily, and I have to force myself to keep them open. We get to a quiet and not so shouty part of the movie, and I just can't do it, I can't keep my eyes open. The last thing I remember before falling asleep is a slight shift in my position, and my head and arms being very, comfortably warm.


	5. Beds and Confusion

_AN: Once again, thank you for all the reviews. I'm glad you guys are liking the story. This fic is rated T, keep that in mind. Oh, and I was tempted to spoil Fight Club in this chapter, but I decided to skip over it, so it's a bit shorter than it originally was. No spoilers here! Also, if anyone has any ideas for the story, feel free to PM me. I'll be happy to take them into consideration, but I do have a general idea for how to end the story. So please don't be offended if I don't use your idea. Enjoy!_

I awaken feeling _very_ refreshed. I slept like a rock. I stretch and turn, opening my eyes, but the room I'm in is bright. I screw my eyes shut again, rolling onto my stomach, and burying my face in my pillow. Huh. My pillow smells good. Really good. Like, slightly musky, and slightly like cologne at the same time. Why would my pillows smell like that? I just took them out of the packaging yesterday. At the most they should smell like packing peanuts. Do packing peanuts even smell?

I lift my head and squint my eyes at the pillow I'm hugging. This pillow is brown. I open my eyes wider, finally adjusting to the light. Yup, this pillow is distinctly brown. My pillow cases are purple. Why are they brown now? I roll over to my back. Weird, white comforter, too. My comforter is black and cream colored. Who jacked my bed linens and switched them out? Jordan? Oh, god, Jordan. I fell asleep while watching the movie last night. Is this his bed? I glance around the room and see no boxes. Just a dresser and a guitar. Yeah, this is Jordan's room.

Oh my god, _this is Jordan's bed. H_ow did I end up in Jordan's bed? Did we… did we have sex? Goddamnit, if I lost my virginity to that boy and don't even remember it… I feel myself up and down, and realize I'm still fully clothed. If I had sex, I'm pretty sure I would have slept naked. At the very least I wouldn't have put my bra back on. I never sleep with my bra on. Jordan's not in here either. Did he not sleep with me? I'm so confused. How the hell did I get here? _Think, Carson._ Let's see, the last thing I remember is falling asleep during the movie. Actually, I don't even remember falling asleep, I just remember feeling sleepy. I assume I fell asleep during the movie. I doubt I would lose memory of what happened last night otherwise.

Well, if I fell asleep on the couch, how did I end up in bed? I doubt I walked here. I would have to have been awake enough to remember that, and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have taken Jordan up on that offer if he asked. We just met yesterday. Am I a whore for waking up in his bed? I pause. No, I don't think so. I just need an explanation for this. Where the hell is he? In frustration, I lie back down, my head landing on the soft pillow. I curl up into a ball and wrap my arms around the fragrant pillow. I'll have to get up and talk to him. I need to know how I got in his bed. I have to know what happened. But I'm scared. I've never had a conversation like this with _anyone _before. I smell the pillow one last time, then sigh and haul myself out of the bed, just now realizing how freaking soft the mattress is too. He must have some sort of pillow top thing going on or something. I wouldn't mind sleeping in it again… _Okay, now you _are_ sounding like a whore, Carson. Cut it out. _Yeesh.

I walk to the bedroom door and pause, listening to see if there's anything going on in the apartment. I don't hear anything, so I continue down the short hallway and see the living room. There are pillows and blankets on the couch. Huh, I guess he slept there, but shouldn't I have slept on the couch? That's where I fell asleep. Wait. Why didn't he just wake me up? I could have easily walked to my apartment from here. It's not like I even had to go outside. I really need some answers. I hear the tinking of silverware against plates coming from the kitchen. Jordan must be in there eating something for breakfast. I take a deep breath. This will undoubtedly be our most awkward conversation yet, but I can't avoid it. I have to ask.

I walk around the corner into the kitchen when Jordan looks up from his cereal bowl. He seems slightly surprised to see me. I wonder why? I mean, I was in his damn bedroom the whole night. I'm sure he knew.

"Well, good morning sleepy head!" He says, before shoveling another spoonful of Cheerios into his mouth. Aw, sleepy head? Is that a term of endearment? I kind of hope so.

"Uh, good morning…" I say, walking up to the countertop where he is sitting. We stare at each other for a few seconds, him still chewing cereal. "I'm… confused. Very confused."

Jordan pauses and swallows. "Oh, you want to know why you woke up in my bed just now." He states.

I simply nod my head.

"Well, you fell asleep on my shoulder last night during the movie." He says, getting another spoonful of cereal. Oh, god, I fell asleep on his shoulder? Damn, I show him affection, and I'm not even awake to remember it. That sucks. Was he mad? He seems pretty nonchalant about it.

"Oh. I'm sorry." I say, beginning to blush. If this conversation goes the way I think it's gonna go, I'll be redder than a tomato by the end of it.

"No, it's fine. You were really tired. Anyway, I finished watching the movie, but you were still asleep. I considered waking you up, but you looked so peaceful, so I didn't." He said, blushing a little bit. I looked peaceful? Well, thank god I didn't snore or drool or anything.

"Wait, so how did I end up in your bed, then?" Still confused here.

"Uh, well, it was your first night in LA, and I thought it would kind of suck if you spent your first night on a couch. So, I, uh. I carried you to my bed, and I slept on the couch." He says, rubbing the back of his neck. He carried me to his bed? In any other circumstance, that would be the most romantic thing ever. Holy Jesus, why wasn't I awake to remember that?

"Wow, really? I don't remember any of that." I say, blushing even deeper. He must be strong to carry me so steadily I didn't even wake up.

"Oh, really? I figured you were awake enough to remember. You were at least awake enough to be very clingy."

"Uh, Clingy?"

"Haha, yeah. Clingy. I could barely get you to let go of me when I put you in the bed."

I held on to him? Damn my subconscious attraction to the boy, manifesting itself in my sleep and shit. I can't believe I held on to him. I guess… I guess I didn't want him to leave. Man, I _am _a whore. Okay, now I'm blushing deeper than a tomato. "I-I'm sorry. I really don't remember any of that. I promise I did none of it on purpose. It's just that ten felt really late to me last night…"

"Like I said, it's fine. I didn't mind sleeping on the couch, and you weren't a burden to carry or anything." God, how I wish I could remember that. Jordan lifts his cereal bowl to his mouth and drains the remaining milk in the bowl. Setting it back down on the counter, he stands up. "Oh, uh, would you like some cereal?" He asks me a bit sheepishly.

"No thank you. I'm not hungry." I reply. Honestly, with my stomach all tied up from the shock of waking up in an unfamiliar bed (no matter how unfamiliar my current bed may be); I'm not sure if I could even hold down any food. "Hey, what time is it?" It feels late in the morning to me, but I'm not on Pacific Time yet.

Jordan looks at his watch. "8:30"

"Wow, I slept, like, over ten hours." I say, although that isn't always that unusual for me.

"Well, you did haul boxes around for most of the day."

"But you did too. And technically, you're up very early." I reply smiling slyly at him.

"It, uh, it gets pretty bright in the living room in the morning." He says, gesturing to the wall length windows on the other side of the couch. "I sleep best in the dark."

"Oh, me too, my room is almost always dark. I slept like a rock last night though. Your bed is freaking comfortable."

"Yeah, it is." Jordan says, rubbing the back of his neck again. Slightly awkward. I need to change the subject matter, I think.

"So, uh, what did you think of the movie?" Jordan smiles widely, and immediately we launch into a conversation about Fight Club. The plot, the characters, the twist ending, and we even delve into the psychological meaning of the movie. I kind of figured this, but Jordan is actually really smart. He knows his way around literary allegorical meanings.

About a half an hour later, I finally tell Jordan that I should go. I would love to stay, really, I couldn't think of a better use of my day, but it's not like I'm living with the guy or anything. Besides, I wouldn't ever say anything about this, but Jordan spent all day with me yesterday, and he never recorded or edited a video. Or anything of the sorts. I don't want to keep him from his Youtube career, plus I really want to go and brush my teeth.

"Oh, okay. You got any plans for today?" Jordan asks.

He wants to know my plans? Does he want to hang out? Do I have any plans? "Kind of. I'm just thinking of going to the grocery store and stocking my fridge. Honestly I can't wait to cook something in there. These kitchens are pretty amazing."

Jordan glances at his kitchen and smiles sheepishly. It's pretty apparent that he doesn't cook in it much, if at all. I take that as a cue, and with surprising confidence say "Maybe I should cook something for you some time. Looks like you don't get a lot of home cooked meals."

He smiles at me. I blush. "That would be really nice. Thanks." He says. "Uh, I was wondering if you have time, would you like to play on my Minecraft server with the guys?"

"That sounds like a lot of fun. I would love to. Uh, any specific time of the day? I don't plan on spending a whole lot of time at the grocery store, so I can play any time." So, he does want to hang out more! My suspicions of him merely being polite with the helping me move and whatnot are alleviated. If he was just being polite and didn't want to see me anymore he wouldn't ask me to hang out with him on his server later, right? The fear of having to deal with his reveal of his Youtube career is still nagging in the back of my mind, but I'm confident enough around him now that I feel I can pull off a pretty convincing performance.

"Awesome," Jordan says. "Well, uh, how about three or four? Is that good?"

"Sure, three or four would be great, Jordan."

"Oh, do you have your phone?" he asks, pulling his out of the pocket of his basketball shorts. "We should exchange numbers so I can text you when the guys are all on the server."

My phone is still in the apartment. "Hm, it's in the apartment. Here, I'll give you my number, and you can text me later. I'll get your number then." He hands his phone to me and I find the contact book, adding my name and number. I am oh so tempted to take a quick peek in his contact book and see how many girls' numbers he has, but I don't. It would be very wrong. Besides, he said he was single. I should believe him. I hand the phone back to him, and smile.

"Text me," I say, winking. Haha, now _I'm _the one who gets to be sassy. Jordan chuckles and leads me to the door.

"I'll talk to you later" He says.

"Hey, Jordan?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for letting me crash here last night. It was very kind of you."

"You're welcome." He says, smiling at me. I love his smile.

"Bye." I walk out the door and across the hall into my apartment. I close the door behind me, and lean against it. Alone for the first time in almost 24 hours. That was definitely not how I expected my first day in LA to go. I have a lot of thinking to do.


	6. Sleep

_AN: Okay, here comes a long authors note. First off, this chapter and the next one are not in Carson's PoV. I'm usually against switching PoVs in stories, but my main goal with this fic was to prove that things done in other horrible fics _can_ be done right. Almost every other Jordan fic uses his point of view. Plus I had a hell of a lot of fun writing this chapter. Fun fact: I was going to put this chapter and the next in one huuuge chapter, but you guys have waited long enough for a new chapter, so I decided to upload them separately. Therefore, the next chapter might be kind of short. I'm not sure, I haven't written it yet._

_On another note, to whatever guest that logged in as "CaptainSparklez" I'm not stupid you know. I'm pretty sure only an idiot would fall for that. I mean, really. The real CS most definitely has better grammar and spelling than that, and if he did want to contact me, I'm sure he'd find a better way to do it. But, if the real CS did in fact read this, I'd probably crawl in a hole and die from embarassment, because this is kind of the ultimate creepy fangirl action. I wouldn't crawl in to the hole before telling him that, by this point, the whole story has become more of a challenge than a love note, and the Jordan in this story feels a lot different than IRL! Jordan. I swear, sometimes I watch his videos and think that I got him pegged all wrong in the story. But no matter! I'll keep chugging along, and I_ will_ finish this thing. I promise. Keep sending me ideas! I love all you guys!_

I look at my couch and frown. It's clear. I had managed to, in a somewhat panicked frenzy get all of the laundry that I had failed to fold off of it. It's neat now, but I just stuffed all the laundry in my closet. I've never really been one to be very pertinent with my laundry. Oh well. I halfheartedly give the pillows one last fluff. I had completely forgotten that my living room was a mess when I invited Carson to watch a movie in here. It was kind of a rush when I walked in and saw the state of things. I hadn't had anyone over to my apartment for a while. But it looks livable now, and I even had enough time to change into pajamas. Well, they could pass for workout clothes, just basketball shorts and a t shirt, but this is usually what I sleep in.

I give my apartment one last look over, and sit on the couch to wait for Carson to come over so we can start the movie. I had never seen Fight Club before, and she kind of went crazy when she heard that. I mean, yeah, it's a popular movie, but I'm not sure if it's a "rite of passage" or anything. No matter. I've wanted to see it for a while anyway. I just don't think it's gonna be better than the last few Batman movies.

In all honesty, I'm kind of nervous. I mean, yeah, I just met the girl today, but I did spend all freaking day helping her move. I'd like to think it was just common courtesy, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't do that for just anybody. Looking at this objectively, it's very strange that I spent all day with some girl I barely know, helping her move, then invited her into my apartment to watch a movie. It feels fast. Then again, there are guys who will meet a girl in a club, get drunk, then take her home and fuck her, so maybe this isn't fast. I mean, this is just a movie. We're just friends. I don't have any intention of dating her. I just met her. Why do I keep telling myself that?

Despite all this, I'm still nervous. I haven't had a girl in my apartment in forever. Actually… I haven't had a girl in this apartment _ever_. I've just been too caught up in Youtube to make any real friends that I hadn't met online, I guess. Could that be why I'm so… comfortable, with Carson already? Why I'm nervous about seeing a simple movie with her? Is it because she's just a friend, and not a fan? I never said a single thing about my career of choice, and I'm almost positive she doesn't know because there were plenty of opportunities to bring it up, and she never said anything either. Maybe it's real easy to talk to her because she's not a fan, she's a friend.

Or maybe it's just because she's really funny, and kind, and is really cute when she blushes. I'm not really sure what I think of her right now anyway. But she's just a friend. A friend I haven't even known for one day who is simply coming over to watch some movie she is totally, adorably, crazy about. Yeah. Just a friend. Just a movie. Ugh.

Finally there are two quick knocks at my door. I jump up and run to the door, pausing to smooth my clothes before I open it, even though they are just pajamas. I kind of wish now that I was wearing something a bit nicer. I finally open the door and see Carson standing in front of me, smiling with a slight blush on her face. Cute. She's changed too; it seems, into some sort of tight sweat pants and a tank top. It looks comfortable. I stand back, and hold an arm out like I did at the elevator. I decide to say something clever.

"Welcome to casa del Jordan." I say, laughing a bit, hoping my reference to her joke earlier in the day goes through. "It's not much, but, ya know, lazy."

She laughs, getting it and steps through the door, saying "Why thank you." After taking a couple of steps into the apartment, she can see the living room and pauses, looking at it. I'm worried. Does she think my apartment's ugly? Or dirty? Did I accidentally leave clothes in there?

"Wow, very… White." She says, continuing her way into the living room. Oh, that's all? Yeah, I'm not much of a decorator, white seemed like the easiest thing to buy without worrying about making my apartment look stupid. But, I try for a more sentimental reason why I chose this color pallet.

"Haha, yeah. It's pretty colorless, but I like it. It's kind of calming." I say, sitting down on the couch. _Smooth. Made myself seem all artsy. _She smiles at me, and I pat the couch next to me, inviting her to sit. She does, crossing her legs and, leaning forward, placing her head in her hands.

"Are you ready to watch Fight Club?" I wave the remote at her, taunting her. She snatches it from me and studies it, I guess trying to find the play button.

"I sure as hell am, but are you?" She waves the remote at me in a similar fashion, smiling. She sure does smile a lot. It's cute.

"I am, but with all this fuss you're making about it, it better be amazing." I know it's a good movie; I've read that everywhere but she seriously is going crazy about it.

"Oh, trust me. It will be the best movie you've ever seen. Some time I'll have to make you read the book." Oh, god, there's a book? I'm sure she has it and she's read it a couple of times. At least I like books.

"There's a book?" I say, cocking my head at her playfully. She literally face palms. I haven't seen anyone do that in a while. It's funny and I laugh. She smiles back at me. Weirdly, we just sit there, staring at each other for a few seconds. It's… comfortable, surprisingly enough.

She breaks the silence. "Ooh, can we turn the lights off? This is the kind of movie that requires all your focus." _Of course it does._

"Uh, sure." I get up and walk over to the wall, switching the lights off. Its dark in here now, but the glow of the tv is enough for me to find my way safely to the couch again. I sit down next to her, this time sitting a little closer than previously. I don't think she notices. I take the remote from her hand, and hit play. The screen goes dark for a few seconds before the FBI notice thingy pops up, and in those few seconds, with Carson sitting right next to me; well, it feels like that first really awkward elevator ride. I can feel her next to me even though we aren't touching. The FBI warning comes on, and the room is filled with blue light. The feeling alleviates a bit, but not much.

She turns to me and smiles eagerly, probably very excited about the movie. I smile back. I guess I'm pretty excited too. Now I'll finally be able to get all those references people make on the internet! But I might not be able to concentrate on the movie too well, what with Carson sitting so close to me and all. I decide to get comfortable and lean back against the couch, putting my arm on the back of the couch behind her. I can feel her tense a little, but I decide to ignore it. She's leaning forward anyway, it's not like I put my arm around her shoulders or anything. Just getting comfortable. Just a friend. Just a movie.

We watch through the intro and first few minutes of the movie silently. I can feel myself getting engrossed in the film, she was right, it is turning out to be pretty good, when she leans back against the couch. The back of her neck touches my arm. It surprises me, but I don't move or anything. I mean, she looked pretty uncomfortable leaning forward. I glance at her, and I can see she's smiling slightly. I smile too and go back to the movie.

This movie is actually really awesome from what I've seen of it so far, but it is really convoluted. Occasionally I'd ask Carson to explain something to me, but she wouldn't ever tell me anything useful, she would just tell me to keep watching the movie. All will be revealed in the end, I suppose. Carson yawns a few times, but I don't say anything. We worked hard today, and I'm sure it's past midnight at home for her. I don't blame her for being tired. Eventually she shifts, slouching down to rest her head against my arm, but she keeps watching the movie. Again, I don't say anything, besides, I kind of like it. It's comfortable. Just getting comfortable. Just a friend.

Fifteen or twenty minutes later, we get to a quiet part of the movie. I'm assuming its part of the buildup right before the climax, and I'm enthralled. I really want to know what this infamous twist ending is. But I feel weight shift next to me, and look over at Carson just in time to see her fall over on to me. Her head is resting on my shoulder, and her right arm is wrapped around my stomach. I laugh, thinking she's making some kind of joke, but I don't get a response out of her.

I tilt my head and peer into her face. Her eyes are closed and she's breathing softly. Huh, she's asleep. How did I not see this coming? I mean, she was yawning the whole time. I guess I just didn't expect her to fall asleep _on _me. Well, I did have my arm behind her. I suppose that did sort of guide her to fall in my direction.

What should I do? I consider waking her up, but she looks so peaceful. Plus, she's warm. Very warm. And this is pretty comfortable, with her head on my shoulder. It won't hurt to wait until the end of the movie to wake her up, right? Besides, if I wake her up now, she'd probably be embarrassed, and the rest of the movie would be awkward. Yeah, I'll let her sleep. I take my arm off the back of the couch and wrap it around her shoulders. She wriggles a bit, and tightens her grip on me, but doesn't wake up. Clingy.

I smile and continue watching the movie, eventually becoming engrossed in it again. I stay silent and try not to move the whole time, and she stays asleep. The ending of the movie was crazy amazing. Carson was right, this was great. Not the best movie ever, but I think it managed to beat out a Batman movie or two. Plus, that twist ending? That was insanely awesome. I totally didn't see it coming, but it made so much sense!

The credits roll, and I look at Carson. She's still nestled into my shoulder, sound asleep. It's kind of adorable actually. But I'm torn. I know I should wake her up, so she can go back to her apartment and sleep, but god, she's dead asleep. It would suck to wake up from that. Plus, she'd probably still be embarrassed if she wakes up on my shoulder. I know she didn't plan this. Maybe I can just let her sleep here. On the couch. But that's not fair. It's her first night in LA. She shouldn't have to sleep on a couch her first night here; that would suck too. I wouldn't want to spend my first night on a couch after traveling to the other side of the country. Hell, she probably hasn't slept on a bed in 48 hours, since she said her flight was a red eye.

Well, that's settled then. She's sleeping in my bed. But I can't just wake her up and make her walk there. She'd never do that. I'm pretty sure she's too much of a good girl, with moral values and whatnot to do that. But nothing would happen. She's just a friend. Right.

I'll just have to carry her there. I gulp. This oughtta be interesting. Gripping my right arm tighter around her shoulders, I turn and slide my left arm under her knees. Leaning over her, I pause to make sure she is still asleep. Still sleeping like a rock.

I pull her into my lap, and she squirms a little, wrapping her arms around my chest tighter. I freeze, fearing that she would wake up and accuse me of trying something funny with her. She nuzzles my shoulder and inhales deeply, but then seems to fall back asleep. That was incredibly adorable.

I chuckle quietly and stand. She's not really that heavy, and she doesn't wake up or anything. I grip her tighter, and make my way down the hallway to my bedroom. Thankfully, the door is ajar, so I push it open with my foot. Also thankfully I didn't make my bed, so I don't have to figure out how to pull the covers back while still holding her. I walk to the bed and I gently lean over, laying her down in the bed. I release my arms around her and am about to stand up when I realize she's still holding on to me. Tightly. I pull upwards a bit, hoping her grip would loosen so I could go, but her hold stays firm.

She won't let go of me! What am I supposed to do? I can't just stand here all night, and I can't wake her up, because that would raise a hell of a lot more questions than if she woke up when she was on the couch. Should I… Should I just get in bed with her? My cheeks burn at the question. I can't do that. It's strange enough I brought her to sleep in my bed. I can't just get into bed with her. We just met today! Despite what happened with her falling asleep on me, we are still just friends. None of that was purposeful affection. She just fell asleep. There is nothing between us, and I can't get into bed with her, no matter how cute she is. I can only imagine her reaction if she woke up in bed with me, not remembering how she got there. No one deserves that much confusion. The confusion she will get waking up in bed alone will be enough. No, I'm sleeping on the couch.

I take my arms behind me and gently unclasp Carson's hands. Her arms fall to the bed, and she turns to her side, still asleep. I pull the covers up and over her, then stand and watch her for a few seconds. Still out like a light. I sigh and make my way into the hallway, closing the door behind me.

I open the linen closet in the hallway and get a couple blankets and a pillow. I carry them into the living room and put them on the couch. Turning the tv off, I get under the blankets on the couch, and stare off into the darkness. I close my eyes, and try to fall asleep, but I can't get Carson out of my mind. I can't stop thinking about how warm she was, and how she felt in my arms. I can't stop thinking about how she wouldn't let go of me. Maybe she didn't want me to leave her?

Nah, that's nonsense. She was dead asleep. I'm sure she didn't consciously know what she was doing. I doubt she'll even remember any of this in the morning. I sit up and punch my pillow. This is going to be a long night.


	7. Texting

_AN: Hey guys! Sorry for the slow updates. My laptop has been super screwy. It's been overheating all the time even though I have a cooling pad, so writing has been difficult. I'll keep trudging on! This chapter was originally going to be uploaded in chapter 6 so it's a bit short. Sorry. This will also be the last time we see Jordan's POV. Maybe. It's definitely the last time for a long time. Thank you all for the reviews and support! I am so glad everyone likes it so much :) Anyway, on with the show!_

Carson walks out the door, and I close it behind her, and then lean on the door. Well, that was a strange series of events. Honestly, I'm kind of surprised that she took the whole carrying her to the bed thing so well. She almost seemed grateful, but she was still her normal self. She didn't seem affectionate at all. I was right. All that snuggling and stuff she did last night was just because she was asleep, not because she likes me or anything. Just friends.

Honestly, when I really think about it, I feel like just a friend to her. I think my mantra I chanted all last night has had some effect on me. Or maybe I was just so… attracted to her last night because of different reasons. Maybe it was the movie with the obvious romantic undertones, or the darkness, or the fact my apartment was a bit chilly and she was very warm. Whatever the case, now, when I picture her face, I think of a friend, and not a potential romantic interest.

Gah, what am I blabbing on about? I met her yesterday, of course she's a friend! Man, but she sure knows how to complicate things though. I push myself away from the door and head back to the kitchen to wash and put away that cereal bowl. I cleaned it pretty nicely in that frenzied rush last night; I might as well make an effort to keep it clean. I'm sure Carson will end up coming over again sometime.

I glance around my bare kitchen and suddenly feel very tired. For summer standards I woke up very early today, and I am _not_ an early riser. But the sun coming in from the huge windows in the living room forced me awake, and I couldn't make myself go back to sleep. Carson is gone now, so I can go back into my room and get some decent shuteye. I do just that, and plop myself on my bed face first, burying my head in a pillow, savoring the darkness. I inhale and roll to my side, but stop. My bed smells different. Well, I'm not really sure if my bed smelled like anything in the first place, I mean I slept on it every night so I would have gotten used to whatever it smelled like, but now it smells… flowery. Almost. I can't put my finger on it. Weird. But I find myself too tired to care, and eventually fall into a light sleep.

I don't sleep too long, it's about 11 when I wake up, but I feel refreshed, if not entirely energetic. I have an agenda in mind, though. I've got another four or five hours before Carson will get on the server, and I've got some stuff to do before then. Mainly Youtube stuff.

I uploaded a survival series episode yesterday morning, and, ideally, I should upload something today. But I've gone a day without a video before, and I don't think too many of my fans complained. I will have to upload something tomorrow though, because people _would _complain if they didn't get anything for two whole days. God forbid. I love my job, I really do, but sometimes the demanding fans get to me. I mean, They are awesome, they're the ones who get me my pay from Youtube, ultimately, but they can get a teensy bit annoying at times.

Ah, well, at least I find the recording aspect of the whole thing fun. It's the editing that is so boring. I try to think what to record. I could do a mod spotlight, but then I'll have to go through suggestions from fans, find the mod, download it, and try to learn everything I can from the forum page or wiki page if I'm lucky. I don't have any series going on with Mark and Nick right now, though I should. I'll need to look for a new adventure map. More survival it is, then. I don't think anyone will complain; all my fans seem to love it.

I head to the bathroom and brush my teeth, splash some water on my face, and try to get my hair to stand in a reasonable fashion. It won't cooperate, and I just give up on it. I'm not in the mood to really give a shit. I feel my chin and turn my head back and forth in the mirror. I really should shave… but I'm too lazy. Besides, I constantly see comments from pissed off fangirls any time I do shave it. I guess the ladies like the beard. I chuckle, and head into my office to begin recording. I feel ambitious, and record for about an hour. Enough for two, maybe three videos. I'll have to edit at least one tonight, but if I record some other kind of game tonight too, then I'll be able to stagger my uploads out and be set for maybe a week.

Feeling accomplished, I head to the kitchen to try and find something for lunch, when I see my phone at the bar. I forgot that I was supposed to text Carson so she could get my number. I should probably text her now, before I get caught up with something and forget. I pick up my phone and scroll through the contact list, and find her name. I shoot her a quick text:

**Hey Carson this is Jordan. You can have my number now :D**

I put my phone in my pocket and rummage through my fridge, eventually deciding on a frozen dinner type thing for lunch. Chicken nuggets and mashed potatoes. Not the best, but it will do. I pop it in the microwave and feel my phone buzz in my pocket. Looks like Carson replied.

**Awesome, thanks. So, what's up?**

Ah, so she wants to have a conversation. No big deal, I'm a quick texter, it won't take too much of my time. Besides, I don't really have too much else to do today, except let the guys know that there will be a new member to our server. I pause. I hadn't really thought about how they would react to that. I hope they're cool with it. I shake my head to clear my thoughts.

**Not much, just heating up some lousy frozen meal for lunch. I might have to take you up on that dinner offer sometime. These can't be healthy.**

I slip my phone back into my pocket, and get my meal out of the microwave. I frown at it. Maybe _I_ should learn to cook some time. I settle down at the dining table and start eating. Carson texts me back. Mouth full of mashed potatoes, I pull out my phone.

**Haha, yeah. Those things are loaded with preservatives. I got stuff for chicken cacciatore to make tonight. Wanna come over? I'd be just saving leftovers otherwise.**

Chicken cacciatore? That's Italian, right? Either way, that sounds freaking delicious, way better than chicken nuggets, I'm sure. Right away I text her back.

**Hell yes! That sounds amazing. Count me in. My stomach thanks you.**

We continue texting for a while, moving on to the topic of our favorite foods, and I finally finish my lunch. I clean it up, and hesitate in the kitchen, thinking about what I should do next. It's about 1 now, only a few hours until Carson plays on the server. I guess I should go ahead and let the guys know we'll have a new player today. I text Mark and tell him to get on Skype, and then head back into my office. I put my headphones on and, after seeing Mark get online, call him up, pulling up twitter and a few other webpages in the background to fidget with while I talk to Mark. I don't know if I'm ADD or what, but I find it hard to sit there and just talk to someone with the internet in front of me. Having some other thing to look at helps me concentrate on the conversation, oddly enough. It keeps my mind from wandering. Mark answers the call.

"Hey man, what's up?" He asks.

"Nothing much, I was just wondering if you and Nick wanted to play on the server later, like, four-ish."

"Sure, I can, but I don't know about Nick. I'll text him and ask, though. But why? You planning on building something?"

"Well, not really." I pause and scratch the back of my neck. It's a bit of a nervous twitch. "Actually, this girl moved in next door yesterday, and she really likes Minecraft. She said she never really played on a server that much and I figured she could play on ours."

"Woah, dude. Back up. Let me get this straight. A girl moved in next door…"

"Uh-huh."

"Who likes Minecraft…"

"Yup."

"And you want her to play on our server."

"Yes." I'm not sure what he's trying to get at here.

"And you just met her yesterday?"

"Yeah. So?"

"You're trying to get in her pants."

"Dude, no, I'm not. She's just a friend. I'm just trying to be nice." I say, exasperatedly. Mark can be so annoying sometimes.

"You want to impress her with your _sparklyness, _don't you?" Mark says. I can almost hear the stupid grin in his voice.

"No, I don't. Listen man, she doesn't even know about CaptainSparklez."

Mark doesn't say anything for a couple of seconds. "Really? Dude, you're internet famous. You don't tell everyone you meet?"

"No, not really. I guess I could have told her… But, I don't know. I kind of thought it would make her act differently towards me if she knew about my Youtube success. Besides, it's kind of cool to have a friend who doesn't know about that stuff. It's nice to be thought of as just a normal guy who likes video games once in a while." I sigh and prop my cheek in my left hand. Why am I explaining all this to Mark again? "That's one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you, though. I don't want you or Nick to mention Youtube, like, at all. Seriously. I don't want her to know about CaptainSparklez."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously. Not one word. Please get that through Nick's thick skull."

"You've got to tell her some time man, if you want to keep being her friend."

I sigh. "I know. And I will… eventually. It's just nice to know that someone wants to be your friend because of you, and not because of your channel."

"Hey I-"

"I know, Mark, you and Nick have been my friends since before Youtube. But you two and Adam are really my only friends that don't really care about CaptainSparklez. I'd like to keep making friends like that."

"Alright, man, I understand. I just don't get why you don't appreciate all those fan girls you have. I mean, you could get laid so easily! I'm jealous."

I roll my eyes. "I do appreciate them. But did you miss the whole 'wanting people to like me for me' speech? I don't think I'd ever date a fan. Besides, the fangirls take it a bit too far sometimes. I mean, fan fiction? Ugh." I shiver inwardly just thinking about it. There's a bit of silence.

"So… you've been talking about her like you've known her for ages. What's happened between you two?"

I sigh and briefly tell Mark what happened yesterday. Bumping into her, helping her move her stuff, helping her build her furniture, dinner, and then the movie. I leave the part out about carrying her to my bed, though. It's not entirely relevant, and Mark would just turn it into some kind of innuendo.

"You sure did spend a lot of time together. But you two are _just_ friends, right?"

"Yeah, I mean, I've only known her for a day. Being anything more than friends, even if I did want that, would be taking it too fast, don't you think?"

Mark doesn't answer my question. "Is she hot?"

Ugh. "I guess. She's attractive, yeah."

"What does she look like?"

I picture Carson in my head. "Brown wavy hair, brown eyes, fairly short, maybe an inch shorter than me, roundish face… Oh, and she has a nose ring. Like a little stud with some purple jewel in it." There's a pause.

"…And you don't want to be in a romantic relationship with her."

"No, not really. At least, I don't think so." I say, scratching the back of my neck again.

"Well, then maybe I should come down for a visit sometime soon." Mark says, chuckling a little. Once again, I can practically hear the goofy grin in his voice

"Mark, you know you're welcome at my place any time, but if you're just coming to hit on my neighbor, then no." For some reason, his proposition to drive down to LA to just hit on Carson really pisses me off.

"Hey, I'm just kidding. Finders keepers. I wouldn't touch your girl." Mark says. I literally face palm. There's no getting through to this guy. He laughs, I suppose being able to infer my frustration. "But really, I haven't been down in forever. I should seriously visit soon."

I smile. "Yeah, you should. It's the summer and all, you got time?"

"Of course I do. The only thing taking up my time is my channel. Just so long as I can record in your office, as usual."

"Sure thing man." I look at my phone. It's about 1:30. "I should go, need to take a shower and such. I'll see you on the server at 4? Don't forget to tell Nick, and please make sure he won't talk about Youtube."

"I won't forget, yeesh. Talk to you then."

"Bye." I end the call and lean back in my chair, thinking about what Mark said. I should tell Carson about my channel, I mean, it's a big part of my life, but I don't want things to get weird between us. She still thinks I'm just some random guy who likes video games. I like it that way. Well, I don't have to tell her right away…

At the very least she can play on our server first.


	8. Groceries and Skype

_AN: Hey, guys! Sorry this chapter took so long, but I have had a lot of other things occupying my time. I kind of felt like I was in a funk after the Jordan PoV chapters, and didn't really know where I was going with the story, but I have stuff planned out now, and writing is fun again! I might have less time to write now, because my classes have started, and I'm looking for a job, but I got my laptop fixed! I don't have to worry about it wigging out and losing my work again. Oh, I also fixed the messed up part in the last chapter. Thanks to my readers who pointed that out. Thank you guys for all the awesome reviews, and keep sending me feedback! It helps! On with the show!_

I push my all my weight against the full shopping cart, willing it to turn in the right direction, but it's not cooperating. Eventually I just decide to pick up the back end ever so slightly and shift it to point in the direction I want it to go. I hate shopping for groceries, but it's a bit less painful when I'm shopping for just one person instead of six, like I had to back home. I glance over my hoard of food and whatnot once more, trying to remember if I will need anything else. I've got snack foods, easy cook meals, pasta, bread, sandwich stuff, a bunch of frozen meat I can cook whenever, a lot of vegetables for snacking and cooking, spices, sodas, juice, ice cream… I've got pretty much everything I can imagine, but I'm almost positive I'll be back soon to get something obvious I had forgot.

Just shopping for one, yet I have a full cart. _Maybe you're shopping for two? _Am I? It's a lot of food, but a lot will keep for a long time. Either way, it is the first food put in the apartment, so I think I have an excuse. I look at the cart again. This certainly would be enough for two people. Enough for two people to share quite a few delicious home cooked meals together. Possibly romantic meals…

I shake my head, trying to remove the image of Jordan and I sitting together at a candle lit table sharing some pasta from my mind. I'm thinking way too ahead of myself here. I met him yesterday, and while mother always says the best way to a man's heart is through his stomach, I doubt Jordan would fall for me because of my cooking. It sure as hell can't hurt, though. I haven't seriously screwed up a dish in a very long time, so I think I will be able to impress him. Especially considering that he never gets anything home cooked, I'm sure he'd be grateful for anything even slightly impressive.

I stop pushing my cart towards the front of the store and stand still in the middle of the aisle. Am I actively trying to get Jordan to… want to date me? I think I am. It's true we only met yesterday, but I've had a crush on him for a long time, no matter how creepy that sounds. It's only natural that I'd want something more between us. I just need to take it slow; it's still only the second day. _Only the second day and you've already slept in his bed. _Well, I really had no choice in that little incident, not that I'm complaining about it, but that doesn't mean things are too fast between us. Nothing happened in that bed. No sex. Not even any cuddling. Well, not any intentional cuddling, at least.

These past 24 hours have been entirely surreal. I'm surprised I'm taking it all in so well. I mentally pat myself on the back and start to continue pushing my buggy to the registers, but my phone in my pocket buzzes. I take it out and see I have a message from an unknown number. I smile stupidly when I see it's from Jordan, letting me know I can have his number. I save his contact and then thank him and ask what's up, because what the hell, I'll just start a conversation with him. I get my cart up to the register and load all my food onto the conveyer belt for the cashier to take care of. I take my purse out of the cart and slip it over my shoulder, then take out my wallet.

While the cashier is scanning my stuff I get another text from Jordan saying he'll have to take me up on my dinner offer because he's eating a shitty frozen lunch. I almost squee out loud and smile widely at my phone. He wants me to make dinner for him! I think over all the ingredients I am about to buy. I got all the things for chicken cacciatore a couple of times over, what with it being my favorite dish and all. It's also incredibly easy to make, but looks and tastes very impressive. I tell Jordan that I'll be making that tonight and invite him to join me. I hope he's not busy. I stuff my phone back in my pocket and wait patiently for the cashier to finish.

The total comes to almost 100 dollars, and I'm glad my parents have agreed to pay for my necessities until my second semester of school when I'm expected to get a job. I hand over my debit card and start loading my bags back into the cart, but my phone buzzes again. He's quick. I open the text, and he accepts! Yes! I reply, telling him to get his tastes buds ready, and giggle, putting my phone back into my pocket. I'm quite enjoying this witty banter we've established. It's cute.

I get my card back and push the cart out the sliding doors of the grocery store, when I pause.

How the _hell_ am I going to get all this stuff home? It's a full cart; I can't just carry it all, even if it is a short walk to the apartment building. I suppose I can call a cab, but it would be a pain to load it all in and out of the car for just a half mile drive.

I look back at my cart and blush, embarrassed at what I am about to do. I look back to make sure no one is watching me, and I casually walk the buggy down the parking lot, but I don't stop at any car. I continue with the cart down the sidewalk, feeling somewhat like a hobo, but I hope that anyone who scrutinizes will realize my predicament. Besides, I'll return the buggy to one of those parking lot receptacles after I put all my groceries away.

Finally I arrive at the apartment building and I silently thank god that there is no one in the lobby. I rush the cart in to the elevators and manage to slip into one before anyone sees me. I can't keep doing this every time I go grocery shopping. I remember Jordan mentioning he has a car in one of his vlogs; maybe I'll have to ask him to help me out one time. I smile at the thought.

When the elevator gets to my floor I lug the cart to my apartment and finally get it into my kitchen. I laugh out loud at the sight of a shopping cart sitting there next to the fridge. It's so very strange in an urban sort of way. I shrug it off and start putting away all of my food items, careful to organize them in a coherent manner, even though I'm never really organized. I figure if I start out neat, though, hopefully I'll be motivated to stay that way. I do put all the ingredients for chicken cacciatore on the bottom shelf in the fridge, though, for easy access. I kind of get the feeling that we'll play on the server for at least an hour, maybe two, and that doesn't leave me too much time to prepare if we are going to eat a reasonable time…

Oh my god, I almost forgot about the server! Holy crap, I've been so focusing on impressing Jordan with my cooking that I almost forgot I have to impress his friends too! Well, I guess I don't really have to impress them, but it would be nice if I could be really friendly and funny and jokey. I think I've seen enough of Jordan's co-op videos to know what Mark and Nick's personalities are like. Somewhat. I think I need to just be slightly silly and happy, and I'll be fine. I pull my phone out to check the time. It's a little after 1. Huh, I spent a long time at the grocery store. Ah well, at least I'm set on food for a good while. On that note, I decide to grab a glass of lemonade ice tea and chill on the couch for a while. I don't have much to do until the little server party.

I set my drink on the end table and lean my head against the back of the couch, looking at the ceiling. I wonder what their server is going to be like? Is it an adventure map? I kind of doubt it; I think Jordan sets up a separate server for all their maps. I get the impression that it's just a survival server. Actually, more likely that it's a creative building server. Well, that doesn't make any sense either, because Jordan said that he would teach me how to be good at PvP, and you have to be in survival for that to work. Maybe it's one of those servers where you just freely switch between creative and survival. I would like that. I wonder if they would let me build something? I'm just used to building houses, not anything super creative, like sculptures. I can do pixel art though, but no one really ever appreciates that. I hope they don't expect much out of me.

Huh, I hadn't really thought of that. Are Jordan's friends okay with me being on the server? God, I hope so. I would understand if they didn't. I barely know Jordan, and I don't know Mark or Nick at all, and that server is kind of their thing… Jordan seemed to imply that they would be okay with it, but he never said it outright. I'm pretty sure he'd defend me if they would try to make me leave, but that would be awkward. I wouldn't want to get between friends. Mark and Nick have always seemed like pretty good guys to me, though, so my worries are probably largely unfounded. I just need to be myself. But more outgoing. Well, I can't be myself _completely._

That's the problem I've been sort of avoiding. I'll have to be careful about what I say when I'm with them. I haven't had that much of a problem avoiding mentioning how much I love Jordan's Youtube videos when I'm around him; I'm pretty sure he just doesn't like talking about it. But his friends? They are notoriously loud and silly, especially Nick. It's almost certain that they will bring it up somehow, which is fine, but I can't bring it up first. I have to stay naïve. Pretend I don't recognize their skins.

Oh _god,_ their skins! And usernames! Jordan's username will be blaring in my face the entire time I'll be on the server. Holy cow, how am I gonna be able to resist saying something about that? Or fangirl squealing when I first see it? I'll have to prepare myself. I can't ignore it outright, it is a pretty strange name after all, but I can't show any signs of recognizing it. I'll have to complement it, maybe. Say it's cute, or funny or something.

I sit up and rub my temples. This is going to be difficult. Tricky, and fragile. I'll have to be careful, step lightly, and I'll have to act natural too. _Ugh. _ With all the pain it is to pretend to not know who Jordan is, I wish he'd just go ahead and reveal his identity to me. I've managed to act normal around him so far, I'm sure I can handle a bit of fabricated surprise at his Youtube success. Then, after he tells me about his channel, I can pretend to go and watch _all _of his videos one night or something, and then if I slip up and mention something about CaptainSparklez, it would be understandable. That sure would be nice, not having to worry about me weirding him out all the time.

I finish off my drink and take into the kitchen to wash and put it away. Turning back towards the living room I realize that I left my phone on the counter. I get it and read the text from Jordan that's been waiting for me. We had been texting about our favorite foods since I invited him to dinner tonight. Huh, apparently his favorite drink is orange juice. I'm more of a grape juice girl myself. I reply, apologizing for my absence, and continue on with the conversation, telling him of my juice preferences. I glance at the time before putting my phone into my pocket.

I still have a good amount of time before I'm expected on the server, and I try to think of what to do. I've already groomed myself as much as I can before I start to look like I'm trying too hard. I could put away clothes, but… Ugh, manual labor sucks. I think of my laptop. I haven't been on the internet in over 24 hours, which is an incredible feat for me. I'm usually on it almost constantly, but I didn't exactly miss it yesterday. Maybe it's because my internet dream crush spent all day with me. I blush. I guess he's all the internet I need.

I giggle at myself and go retrieve my laptop from my office to take into my living room. I plop down on my couch and immediately go to Youtube. It's a force of habit, I suppose, but it's not like my favorite Youtuber uploaded anything today. At least I don't think he has. I check his feed anyway, and see that he's posted a bulletin saying that he's going to be busy today, so no video until tomorrow. I can't help but grin stupidly at my computer screen. He's talking about me, right? Hanging out with me tonight, and then eating dinner with me? It's possible he's just being lazy and making excuses, but a girl can dream, right?

I check Tumblr next, not just to check on my dashboard, but to see the CaptainSparklez tag as well. Nothing has really changed since the last time I saw it, just more quotes from Jordan's recent video, and screenshots of tweets. A couple fanarts and fanfics show up too. As I scroll the page, I can't help but feel some sort of strange superiority. I know it sounds terrible, but I'm experiencing what every girl on this tag dreams of experiencing. I live right across the hall from Captain freaking Sparklez, the love interest of literally thousands of girls, and I talk to him! Regularly! Almost as if on cue, I get a text from Jordan, and smile while I text back. I have no idea how I ended up in this situation, but I feel as if Karma is sort of smiling on me right now.

After a blurry haze of Tumblr posts and various Youtube videos, I get a text from Jordan with his Skype ID. I gasp, looking at the clock on my computer. Woah, it's four already? God, the internet is just a black hole that sucks time into it, isn't it? I hastily take my laptop into my office, and put it on my desk, setting up my wireless mouse and headphones. While I wait for Skype to load, I head to the bathroom and mess with my hair a little, making sure it looks nice. I mean, yeah, it's not like Jordan hasn't seen me with bed head, but there is something about seeing a person over webcam that makes you a little paranoid about your looks. Not to mention I'll be making a first impression on Mark and Nick too. I don't want to look like some random skank. I head back into my office, and open Minecraft. I let it load while I search for Jordan's Skype ID, and invite him to be my friend. My ID is just my name and a few numbers, so I'm sure he'd recognize me, but I attach a message saying it's me anyway. I lean back in my chair, and wait.

Eventually I get a message from Jordan with two more Skype IDs, presumably Mark and Nick's. I send those friend requests as well, and in a few minutes I get a request from Jordan to join a group call. This is it; I'm going to meet Jordan's incredibly eccentric friends… Here we go. I take a deep breath, and hit accept.

Immediately my screen divides into fourths, and three new faces pop up, with my own face in the bottom right corner. Jordan's is in the top right corner, and holy crap he looks good. I think he just took a shower and styled his hair or something, because it looks gelled. He's wearing the headphones he wears in all his videos, but his big ass microphone isn't in front of him, I guess since he isn't focusing on sound quality. Having his face in the top left of my screen, though, it feels like I'm watching a video of his, almost. But it's not a one way deal this time.

Becoming aware that I may have been staring at Jordan just a bit too long, I shift my gaze to the other faces on my screen. Mark and Nick.

"Hello," I say, waving. "I'm Carson. You guys must be Mark and Nick. It's nice to meet you." I make sure to smile, trying my hardest to seem pleasant, even though I'm nervous as hell. It's silent for a second, and I glance anxiously between the two faces. I recognize Mark from a couple of Jordan's IRL videos, and I assume the other face is Nick's. I had never seen his face before, but, looking at it, it seems like it really fits his voice. I wasn't expecting the fairly large beard though.

A second passes. No one says anything. Is my connection bad? I'm about to check to see if I'm still on my wifi when I hear Mark's voice.

"Woah, Jordan, you were right. She is hot."

"W-what?"My eyes jump to his face in shock, my cheeks burning. Mark's smiling, biting his lip, almost as if he's holding back a laugh. Mark thinks I'm hot? _Jordan thinks I'm hot? _Holy shit, Jordan told him that I'm hot? I look at Jordan's face, and his eyes are wide, mouth open. My face reddens even more.

"Mark!" Jordan practically yells, a look of shock no longer on his face. He looks angry now. Nick bursts out laughing, the first sound he's made the entire call. I look at him. He's laughing so hard, he's doubled over. I can only see the top of his head. Mark starts laughing too, and Jordan just closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose. I fidget with my headphone cord and look down, listening to the two laughing. Were they just joking? I really hope not. I want Jordan to think I'm hot. Jordan speaks. I look up to his face.

"I'm sorry about that, Carson. They're… kind of like that." He says, frowning. He looks really apologetic, but his face… His face is red! He was blushing! Does that mean it was true? My heart swells a bit, and I smile goofily at him. Well, at the camera.

"It's fine," I say, laughing a bit, but it's hard to hear myself talk with Nick and Mark's loud laughter in my ears.

Nick sits up, inhales deeply, and literally wipes a tear from his eye. Mark stops laughing too. "I'm sorry…" Nick says, chuckling the tiniest bit. "I'm Nick."

"And I'm Mark." He waves briefly at the camera. "Is it still nice to meet us?"

I giggle a bit, seeing their overly hopeful faces. "Yeah, it is."

"Awwww yeaaaaahhh!" Mark shouts.

"Yesssssssssss!" Nick does a fist pump.

I smile, biting my lip, and look to Jordan. He's shaking his head slowly, but he's smiling. It's easy to see that he's fond of his friends, and I think I'm going to grow to like them too.

"Alright, alright," Jordan says loudly. He waves his hand closely in front of the camera, getting the other two's attention. "We were going to play on the server, remember?"

"Oh, yeah. I'm getting on." Mark says.

"Whoop!" Nick says. I have no idea what that was…

"Here, Carson. I'll send you the IP in the chat." Jordan says.

"Thanks." I say. "But, uh, I won't be able to see you guys once I start playing. I don't have a dual monitor set up or anything. Just my laptop." I suppose I could switch back and forth between Minecraft and Skype, but that would be too much of a pain in the ass.

"Oh, that's fine, no problem," Jordan smiles strangely, almost as if he's relieved. Weird.

I shrug it off and copy the IP from the chat and bring up Minecraft, but when I do a tiny pop up window with all our faces shows up in the top left corner of my screen. Oh, I forgot, Skype has a pop up video option now. I hadn't used it in so long that I didn't remember. I'm about to say something, but I stop myself. I'm sure they won't care if I can see them, we wouldn't be video chatting if they didn't, right? I drag it to the other side of the screen and make it a bit bigger, almost laughing at the silly face Nick is making.

In Minecraft I set up a new server. I almost name it Sparklez, but I don't. That could possibly be incriminating. I'm not supposed to know his username yet. I name it Jordan instead. I smile weakly, but my heart is beating fast. I'm nervous. I need to put on the perfect act. I can't show any flicker of recognition at Jordan's skin or username. I have to act surprised and say that CaptainSparklez is a super cute name. I take a deep breath.

"Hey, you getting on, Carson?" Jordan says. I can see he's frowning slightly.

"Y-yeah. I'm just setting up the IP and stuff."

"Okay," He smiles, not that he knows I can see it. "I'll be waiting at spawn for you."

God, he is so damn sweet. I smile, and feel the tinniest bit less nervous. "Thanks."

I brace myself, take one more deep breath, and log in.


	9. Practice and Penises

_AN: Hey guys, I have a bit of a rant. Okay, here goes. Dear Emer, the guest who didn't log in and reviewed. I have something to tell you. Sit your ass down, shut the fuck up, and be patient. (Emer left the review "C_'_mon, update already.) Do me a favor, will you? Scroll up a bit and take a look at the word count for this story. What do you see? Over 25,000 words, right? That's a fucking lot of words. This story is already 50 pages long on my computer, and that's single spaced 12 point font. This story is fucking long. The longest thing I've ever written. Wanna know why I do it? Not for my readers, no, even though all the reviews I get make me very happy and give me motivation to write, it's not for them, and it's certainly not for you, Emer. I write for myself. For fun. This is a challenge to make myself a better writer, and a challenge to finally complete one of my projects. Emer, I don't owe you a damn thing. You don't have to pay to read this story. You don't have to buy the book, or even get off your ass to go rent it from the library. This is for me, and I'll update at my pace, not yours. Now, don't get me wrong, I won't bite your head off if you ask when I'm going to update. I understand you want to know what happens next. But don't fucking _demand _it of me. I promise I'll finish this story. I fucking promise. So be patient. School is getting tough, and I'm having less and less free time to write. So be patient. _

_One more thing, I got very few reviews last chapter, and that's okay, but here's the thing. I got people who Favorited me and my story, but didn't leave a review. That's not nice. You favorited it so obviously you liked it, but why? I don't expect you to review every chapter, but if you read my story, at least do it once. The reviews, good or bad as long as they are constructive and not shitty little demanding remarks, motivate me to write more. I get more pleasure out of this if I know I'm making people happy by uploading it. So, please, review if you haven't at least once. I want to know what you think! Oh, and Emer? Kindly go fuck yourself. _

_Enjoy!_

The screen goes black for a few seconds, but then a bright, grassy plain appears in front of me, with a sparse forest to my left. Tall mountains pop into existence in the far distance. Not exactly what I expected from their server. I expected complicated feats of architecture and intricate redstone contraptions. I turn around and jump a bit when I see Jordan standing right in front of me. Oh god, his skin. His username. This time, it really is CaptainSparklez. Take another breath. Play it safe. Be natural.

"Jordan? That you?" I ask, punching the air above his head. I definitely can't act like I immediately know it's him. I glance at his video in the corner of my screen. He's smiling.

"Yeah, it's me." He says, punching the air next to my head. Should I say it now? I think I should say it now. I look deliberately at the name floating above his head.

"CaptainSparklez?" God it feels weird saying that aloud to him. "That's absolutely adorable!" _Yes, _I managed to say that perfectly.

"Haha, thanks." He says, in an only slightly embarrassed tone. "It's just something I came up with randomly."

"A _lot _of people like his name." Mark says, who I hadn't realized was, along with Nick, completely silent until this point. A lot of people like his name? Is he referring to his fans? He's definitely referring to his fans. I gulp; I think I'm going to have to do more acting. I look at the window in the corner of my screen. Jordan is deliberately looking straight into his camera, and motioning his hand across his throat, as if pretending to slice it. The universal symbol for _cut it out._ What's up with that? I know he thinks I can't see him, so he must be directing it to Mark and Nick. _Oh. _He doesn't want them to say anything about his channel. That certainly is interesting. Why doesn't he want me to know? Either way, I still need to feign ignorance.

"Oh? Do you play on a lot of servers, Jordan?" I say, with what I feel is the right amount of inflection. I can hear Nick laugh quietly.

"Uh, yeah, I used to." Jordan walks to stand next to me. "So!" He says a little too loudly, "I'll show you around the server." And he starts sprinting in a random direction. I sprint after him when I notice his famous Minecon cape is gone. That's weird… He always has it in his videos. I can't say anything about it, though. I shouldn't know it's not there.

"Spawn is a little ways away from where we've been building…" He says, still ahead of me. After a second or two I can see tall structures start to materialize on the horizon. As we get closer I realize what the closest one is. A giant penis sculpture made of pink wool. Of course. Oh, and the balls are made of iron blocks, that's clever.

"Haha, um, _wow._" I say. How was I not expecting this? We come to a stop in front of the sculpture.

"Uh, yeah. Nick likes building penises…"

"There are fifteen of them here!" Nick yells, making me jump a bit.

I laugh, and mutter "Freud would have a thing or two to say about that" quietly. Mark hears me, though, and starts laughing loudly.

"What's funny?" Nick asks, popping into existence beside of me. He teleported to Jordan, I guess.

"Carson called you gay, dude!" Mark almost shouts. Jordan laughs.

"What? No, I was just saying that Freud would have a field day here, not that I would agree with him. He was a misogynistic asshole who was completely off the mark about psychosexual development." I pout.

"Woah, an aspiring psychologist, I presume?" Nick asks, crouching and punching the air around me.

"Um, no. Anthropologist, really, but I find psychology interesting." I punch at Nick too.

"Cool," Jordan says. I look at his video again. He's smiling. I love his smile.

Mark teleports to us, and I remember I'm not supposed to be able to differentiate their skins.

"Oh, who's who?" I ask, looking from Mark to Nick and back again.

"I'm the pink Power Ranger!" Nick shouts, jumping circles around me. I can't help but smile at him.

"The pink one was the best," I chuckle.

"I'm the _not_ Power Ranger," Mark whispers in a really creepy way. I actually can't tell what his skin exactly is. Some dark guy in a wife beater and chains.

"Alright, so Nick's the Power Ranger, Mark is the black guy, and Jordan is the… guy with the sunglasses." I say, smiling.

Jordan laughs. "I like your skin, Carson. Kinda looks like you."

I blush. My skin is just some random chick with brown hair, a purple hoodie, denim shorts, and headphones. "Thanks. It's just something I got off of one of those skin sharing websites."

Everyone is kind of quiet for a second.

"So, uh, that tour? I'm sure you wanted to see more than Nick's penis, right?" Jordan asks. Immediately his face turns red and now it's my turn to burst out laughing. Oh, god. I wasn't expecting Jordan to be the one to be making the innuendos. He didn't mean it, but that's what makes it so much funnier. Nick and Mark join in too, but Jordan only chuckles. I think it embarrassed him. But I can't stop laughing. I can hardly breathe! Finally, I inhale deeply and rest my forehead in my hand. The guys quiet down and I look up at Jordan. Still red and kind of frowning a bit.

"Wow…" I say, laughing a little.

Nick whoops. "How _was_ my penis, Carson?"

I can't help myself. This is just too funny.

"Oh, it was wonderful, Nick!" I involuntarily snort. "Quite shapely, and I liked the iron balls." I start laughing again, gasping for air, along with Mark and Nick. Through my tears I can see Jordan. He's frowning, but it kind of looks like he's trying not to laugh. I catch my breath and shake my head.

"Alright, that's enough about Nick's penis." Jordan says, pouting. He's cute when he pouts.

"Well, whose penis should we talk about then?" Mark asks, smirking. "Carson's?"

I giggle. "Sorry, fellas, don't have one." I shake my head slowly, in mock sadness.

"Oh, well, we all have one!" Mark says. I blush.

"I, uh, kind of figured…" Are we talking about real ones now? I bite my lip.

"No, he means we all built one, silly." Nick runs up and punches at me. "You need to build one too!"

"Jordan and Mark have ones too? Where?" I'm genuinely curious, but the innuendo isn't lost on me.

Jordan coughs. "Well, if you'd let me finish the tour, then I'll show you." He manages to keep a straight face, but its bright red. God, the sexual tension in this conversation is astronomical. If it wasn't so damn funny it'd be awkward. I consider making another joke about seeing his penis, but I just murmur an affirmative instead. I don't want to make it weird.

"Okay, okay. Lead the way, Captain." I've always wanted to say that to him. Jordan chuckles and starts to walk towards the other structures. Mark and Nick start to tag along, and Jordan makes them promise to behave themselves, but it's obvious he's joking. They follow along behind us and punch each other occasionally.

There is a lot of random crap built on their server. Jordan shows me immensely tall towers, empty skyscrapers, and tiny little villages, long minecart rollercoasters and, of course, more penises. Eventually the four of us make our ways to a grassy plain on the edge of a mountain biome. There's a large mansion styled like a cottage, a chaotic jumble of rooms made of all kinds of materials imaginable, and a giant pink entrance into the mountain. Jordan stops sprinting and walks to the cottage mansion.

"Well, this is where our houses are," he opens the door to the cottage. "This is my house." Jordan says, and enters. I follow inside after him. It's adorable inside. It's all oak walls and birch floors, and rugs made out of different colors of wool. In the living room type area there are tables and chairs made of stairs, and a glowstone fireplace. There's a quaint kitchen to the left, with furnaces and chests. To the right are a set of stairs that lead to a second floor, and a set that presumably lead to a basement.

"This is adorable, Jordan." I say, wandering further into the house. It looks so cozy, like somewhere I would want to live. I can seriously picture myself on a couch where the stair bench is now, reading a book in front of a fire. Before I can stop myself I picture Jordan sitting there next to me. I blush and smile.

"Oh, thanks." Jordan says. "I just thought the cozy cottage thing was cool. Wanna see the rest?"

"Yes, please." I say, and follow him to the stairs. I realize that Mark and Nick have been oddly quiet, but I realize that I can hear them whispering softly in the background of the skype call. I guess I just wasn't paying attention to them. I shrug, but keep following Jordan upstairs to the second floor. Up there is a large bedroom with lots of chests, and a double bed. I blush lightly at the sight, thinking it's another innuendo, but I realize that it's most likely because a double bed kept the room symmetrical. I understand; I'm kind of a freak when it comes to symmetrical rooms in Minecraft also. He shows me the other rooms, a study with a desk made of half slabs, an entertainment room with a jukebox and a tv made of black wool, and a small bathroom with cauldrons for sinks. It's quaint but functional. It's lovely.

Jordan leads me down to the basement, and I'm shocked. Immediately after the hallway is a massive library. The hallway continues on a pathway that ends in a giant spiral staircase in the middle of the massive room. All around are ladders and pathways that allow access to the endless bookshelves. I can see many cozy little nooks with seats and torches, perfect little places to nestle away and read. It's amazing. Wordlessly, I begin to walk toward the spiral staircase with the intention of discovering all the little hidden reading places.

I laugh. "This is amazing, Jordan! It's so beautiful. How long did it take you to build this? I turn around briefly and see Jordan is following me down the staircase.

"A long time. I think it was worth it though, it's pretty cool. Almost like a Hogwarts library. If this place were real, I know I could spend years here." Jordan chuckles. "There's also an alchemy laboratory and an enchantment room tucked away in the corners. Since this is all underground I can expand whenever I want."

I smile widely and sigh. This man is absolutely perfect. Utterly, amazingly, perfect. Oh, how I wish this place were real, and that I could actually be here with him. We spend a while wandering the library, Jordan showing me hidden pressure plates that open to different little rooms with more books and more chairs. Surprisingly, neither Mark nor Nick disturbs us, but I can still hear them talking quietly in the background. I get the impression that Jordan somehow turned their volume down on the call for us.

Eventually, though, we decide to go back up to the surface to see the other two's houses. After a few seconds Mark and Nick are back up to their normal volumes, and are arguing about the right to build something somewhere.

"I built under the mountain first; I should be able to build on top!" Nick shouts, and leaving the cottage I can see that he's punching Mark as they run back and forth in front of the mountain.

"But I want to build a water slide!" Mark whines.

"Uh, hey, can I see your guy's houses now?" I ask loudly, to be sure they hear me. They stop chasing each other and run up to us standing in front of Jordan's house.

"Oh, I get to go first, my house is closer!" Mark declares, jumping up and down in front of me.

"Okay," I say, laughing.

"Fine!" Nick shouts. "Mine will be the grand finale then!" He sprints back off towards the pink hole in the mountain. I can see Jordan roll his eyes in the video feed. I smile.

Mark leads us to the colorful jumble of rooms opposite Jordan's cottage.

"Originally I had a logical floor plan for this place," Mark explains, opening the door, "but it was kind of difficult to fit all I wanted into the plan so I just said 'fuck it' and started adding the rooms wherever I wanted."

"That sounds cool," I say.

"It's hard to navigate…" Jordan whispers.

We enter a fairly normal looking wooden and cobble living area, but Mark leads us up a flight of stairs and it becomes apparent that there isn't any rhyme or reason to the way the rooms are arranged. Giant rooms with swimming pools lead into game rooms which lead into bedrooms which lead into storage rooms. Any kind of room you can think of, and Mark has most likely built it, and in many different materials. No bets on being able to actually find it, though. The house is chaotic, but interesting. I have fun following Mark around, listening to him explain what each room is. After a while, we've seen every room, or at least Mark thinks we have, and we manage to find our way back to the entrance. I thank Mark for the tour, and walk out the door.

Immediately Nick pops out of nowhere and yells incoherently. I jump and scream. Was _not_ expecting that. Jordan and Mark laugh, and I frown. Nick jumps up and down.

"Ha! Got ya. Okay, now you get to see my house!" He runs off towards the hole in the mountain.

"O… kay." I follow, uneasily. I look behind me and see that Jordan and Mark are both following. Nick runs in to the hole and I shrug and follow. Inside the hole is a wide staircase that continues for a while. The walls are lined with white and pink wool, with lines of glowstone across the ceiling. Following Nick down the stairs, I notice that he modeled the color scheme after his power ranger skin. Clever.

Eventually the stairs come to an end, and Nick leads all of us into what I can only describe as a huge pink bat cave. The entire place is lined with pink wool, with a few white accents. Glowstone lamps light the place, and several massive screens covered in pictures adorn the walls. Bookshelves covered in trapdoors and switches are underneath the screens, presumably masquerading as control panels. It's actually quite impressive.

"Welcome to my bat cave!" Nick shouts, laughing manically. I notice he's holding a bat spawn egg, and spawns a bunch of bats around him while still laughing. It's a nice touch, and I applaud his performance. We all laugh a bit, and Nick shows us around his cave which leads to a lot of smaller rooms. There's a swimming pool, a library, and a bunch of storage rooms. Of course there is one room that has nothing but a bunch of penises. I can't say I wasn't surprised. In an interesting twist, though, all the rooms are lined with a different kind of block. I think Nick originally intended for his rooms to be all the colors wool offered, but he's built too many rooms since then. Now he has iron rooms, brick rooms, obsidian rooms, pretty much any kind of block imaginable. It's almost overwhelming, the sheer size of the place. After a while we are lead back to the outside of the mountain. The four of us stand there, in silence for a moment. I twiddle my thumbs.

I'm about to ask what's next, but Nick speaks up. "Oh, Carson, you haven't seen Mark and Jordan's penises yet!" Him and Mark start laughing, but Jordan sighs loudly.

"Alright, we get it. Penises are funny. Can we just get this over with?"

"Uh, yeah, sure, okay." I say, trying not to laugh. I succeed. Jordan leads us around the mountain and we come to a softly sloping hillside. There are two penises there. One of them is a pixel art type thing, made of purple wool. The other is shaped a lot like the first one of Nick's I saw, but this time instead of steel balls, this one has pokeballs for balls, which is hilarious. Jordan explains quickly that he built the pokemon one, and Mark did the purple one. Immediately he starts to lead us away from the area.

"Okay, the tour is finally over." He says, sprinting towards the area with the houses. "You can build a house now, if you want to Carson."

"Wait, she can't build anything yet!" Nick yells. Ugh, what is it this time?

"Why not?" Jordan asks, with clear annoyance in his voice. I don't blame him. I'm done with the tours, I just want to build something already.

"She hasn't built a penis yet!" Nick retorts in a tone of voice suggesting that Jordan is being ridiculous for even asking.

"You're kidding me, again with the penises?" Jordan face-palms.

"Well, yeah. We all built penises before we even built anything else on the server! It's become an initiation now!" Nick says adamantly.

Mark speaks up, "He's kind of right, Jordan. Just appease him."

"I'll do it." I say quickly. I already kind of feel like an intruder on this server in the first place, and I'll do whatever it takes to be "initiated" anyway. Even if it is building a penis.

"You don't have to Carson, Nick's just being a dork." Jordan says, walking up to the three of us. He's sweet, it's almost like he's trying to protect me from the horrors of building a penis. I'm a big girl though, I can handle it.

I giggle. "It's fine, Jordan. I want to be initiated!" He sighs, but smiles. I hear rapid typing, and suddenly I'm in creative mode. "Thanks," I say, and fly off towards the area with the other penises. "Don't mind me; you boys just go back to your mining and crafting."

"Alright," Mark and Jordan say in almost unison.

"But I wanna watch!" Nick pouts. I laugh, he acts like a sad little puppy sometimes.

"Don't worry, it won't take long. You can see it when I'm done." I get to the hillside where Mark and Jordan's penises are, and decide to put mine between theirs. I have a clever plan to make one quickly and creatively. I put some grass blocks, bonemeal, and jungle saplings in my inventory, then I start to work. With the grass blocks I build two large rounded mounds, making sure they somewhat blend in with the hill. I want them to look natural. Then, just above, and in the center of the mounds, I make a 2x2 platform with dirt, and place four jungle saplings on it. Finally, standing back, I use bonemeal on the saplings, and a giant jungle tree sprouts from the ground. Wow, it's tall too, I think smugly.

I fly up the tree, clearing all the leaves off of it except for the ones on the very top, and use more leaves to make the ones at the top a little more… mushroom shaped. Finally, I add a bunch of leaves at the base of the tree opposite the mounds. Alright, it's finished, and it only took me a few minutes. I take a few steps back and admire my work. I like it.

"Okay, I'm finished." I call out to the guys who had been quietly minding their own business until this point. I hear a lot of typing coming from the skype call, and all three of them teleport to me.

"Already?" Mark asks. "Woah, cool. That's clever."

"Awesome, Carson." Jordan says, circling the tree. "The leaf pubic hair is a nice touch."

I laugh. "Thanks. Is this good enough, Nick?"

Nick flies up to the top of the tree and stands on the leaves. "Yeah, it is. It's a nice addition to our penis collection. Welcome to the server."

"Yes! I've been initiated!" I whoop. This is awesome. I'm officially a part of an awesome server with a couple of really cool and funny guys. I think this is a server I'll stick around in.

"Congrats! You wanna build a house now?" Jordan asks, punching me, but it doesn't do anything because I'm still in creative. That reminds me, wasn't he going to teach me PvP?

"Sure, but weren't you going to teach me PvP, Jordan?"

His eyes light up. "Oh yeah, I did promise that. We can do that now. Uh, hold on…" I can hear him typing for a bit. "Okay, follow me." He says, flying off back towards the houses.

I follow him and we stop in the field a hundred blocks or so from the houses. I hear more typing and I'm in survival mode again. Jordan tosses me a wooden sword and a couple of porkchops, and then switches himself out of creative.

"Alright, the first thing you need to learn about PvP is how to attack and dodge. The best thing for you to have is quick reflexes. You need to be able to block attacks and attack yourself when your opponent isn't blocking. To be successful at PvP you need to get over the urge to just click away with your sword because unless you're decked out in diamonds, you'll surely lose."

I stand there awkwardly with my wooden sword and soak that all in. I totally forgot that you can block with your sword. I've never even used it, not even against skeletons. I blush. "Uhm, okay. That sounds like a lot. What do we do first?"

"I'll teach you to block first. You just right click and hold with the sword to block. It sounds like an easy way to fend off attacks, but there is a downside, you move ridiculously slowly when you are blocking. Therefore, you need to time your blocks correctly to keep moving. This is super handy if you are trying to escape from the attacker." Jordan takes a couple of steps back, and with his own wooden sword, slashes at the air right next to me.

"Do you see how the sword moves when I'm attacking with it?" I watch carefully. I'm assuming Jordan is just holding down the left click, because he's attacking continuously. His character's arm is moving up and down at a steady pace, with the sword pivoting slightly. The tip of the sword is moving in a circle.

"Yeah, the tip of the sword is going in a circle." I say, a bit nervously. I could be wrong and look like a total idiot.

"Exactly," Jordan says. I smile. "Okay, when someone is holding down the left mouse to attack, or even if they are clicking rapidly, the attack always lands when the sword's tip reaches his highest point. Watch," He says, and steps closer to me. I watch the tip of the sword carefully, and when Jordan attacks me with it, my character loses health exactly when the sword was at its highest point.

"Oh, wow, it does." I say, eating a porkchop to get my health to regenerate.

"Now, it's kind of hard to explain exactly when to start blocking, so the best way to learn is to just try. Get your sword ready."

I get my sword out and ready my finger on the right mouse button. "Okay, I'm ready."

Jordan pauses for a second and attacks. I freak out the tinniest bit, and block as soon as I see his arm move.

"Okay, you blocked the attack, but you did it too soon. If you were trying to run from me I would have caught up with you and killed you." Jordan says. I gulp.

"Alright, let me try again."

"This time I'll just click and hold, attacking continuously. I think you'll be able to get the timing better that way." Jordan backs up a little, then starts attacking.

I watch the sword carefully, and attempt to time my blocks with the waving of the sword. I'm too late for the first few hits, but I manage to block some of the others. I don't have the timing down perfectly, but I can start to see where the sword should be before I block. I'm pretty concentrated, and I'm doing pretty good, but then I hear Nick shout something and lose my focus. Jordan kills me pretty quickly.

"Oops," He says. I respawn at the spawn point. Ugh, that's going to be a walk. "Uh, here, let me teleport you back…" Jordan says. In a few seconds I'm back in the field, and I can see that Mark and Nick are building bleachers near where we were practicing. I guess my incompetence is a spectator sport now.

"Having to teleport you here every time you die is going to get annoying," Jordan says, "So we need to reset your spawn."

Oh, I need to sleep in a bed. "But I haven't built a house yet…" I say. I guess I could just put a bed on the ground.

"That's fine, you can use the extra one in my house." He says. I blush. His beds are together. I mean, yeah, it's just a video game, but still… Mark and Nick start to chuckle quietly. I'm sure they know what his bedroom looks like.

"Um, sure." I say, biting my lip.

"You two need to go to sleep too, so Carson can reset her spawn." Jordan says. They oblige, running back to their houses, still chuckling. I follow Jordan to his house, and he pauses at the door, typing quickly. Suddenly the day becomes night, and we hurry into the house. This is super awkward. I follow him upstairs to the bedroom, and he pauses next to the beds.

"Uh… I can move one if it bothers you." I can see in the video feed that he's rubbing the back of his neck.

"Oh, no, no. It's fine. I don't care." I say. My face is still red.

"Not the first time you've slept in his bed, Carson?" Mark says, still laughing. I freeze. _What?_ How did he know about that? Did Jordan tell him? Oh my god.

"How did you know about that?" I ask, my voice cracking.

It's completely silent for a few seconds, then Nick bursts out laughing. Oh god, can my face be any redder? I touch my cheeks. They're hot.

"Um, wow." Mark says slowly. "I was just joking. I thought that… What the hell happened?" Shit, I just realized what I implied. My face is going to explode. I look at Jordan. His face is beet red. I don't say anything. I don't think I can.

"She fell asleep while we were watching a movie at my place last night. I let her sleep in my bed and I slept on the couch." Jordan says matter-of-factly. He's doing the _cut it out _motion again, I'm assuming directing it to Mark and Nick.

"Wait, why didn't you just walk back to your place, Carson? You're neighbors, right?" Nick asks, a hint of laughter still in his voice. I stutter for a second, trying to think of what to say.

"I never woke her up." Jordan says quietly. His face is serious. All is quiet for a second. I think the two are considering what that means.

"Oh… _oh._" Nick says.

"_Dude…_" Mark whispers.

Jordan is glaring pretty violently into the camera. He still thinks I can't see him, but I still shrink away a little. His death glare is pretty scary.

"Shut up." He says quickly. "Can we please do this respawn thing?"

"Sure, dude. We're waiting for you," Nick says. His face still looks a little shocked.

"Oh, okay." He turns to the beds. "Carson?"

"Oh, uh, sorry." I say, regaining my composure. I pick the bed on the right and look straight ahead, keeping my mouth shut. My face is still red. Jordan gets in the other bed, and after a few seconds the screen fades to gray. Suddenly we are standing next to the beds and light streams in through the window. I quickly make my way out of the house, with Jordan behind me. God, this is the most awkward game of Minecraft I've ever played. I sprint out to the field and around the unfinished bleachers, eager to start something that would change the subject from mine and Jordan's…relationship? I'm not even sure if you can call it that.

Jordan follows behind me and smirks. "Eager to learn, eh?"

"Yes." I say quickly. Anything to dispel this awkwardness. We start up the same drill, and go about it for a while. Occasionally Mark or Nick would come around and watch, but they mostly went and did their own thing. I got to be pretty damn good at blocking, and Jordan started allowing me to be the attacker. He didn't make it easy though, he would run and attack back, and would manage to kill me many times.

After a while we are about to move on to bows, but then I notice the time. It's after six! Shit, if Jordan and I are going to eat at a reasonable time, then I better start cooking now.

"Uh, Jordan, it's after six. If we are going to eat at any reasonable hour I'd better start cooking now…" I say, stepping back from the bow he throws at me.

"You're cooking for Jordan?" Mark asks. I glance at the video feed. Jordan is staring daggers at his camera, almost as if he's daring Mark to make fun of us again.

"Aw, I want some!" Nick pouts. I laugh.

"Sorry, Nick. Unless you can get here in an hour or so you can't have any." Nick told me earlier that he lives all the way in Minnesota, so that could never happen unless he built a teleporter.

"Damn it." He says.

Jordan and I laugh. "Alright, well, we've got to go," Jordan says.

"I had a lot of fun, you guys. We'll have to do this again." I say, giggling.

"Definitely." Mark and Nick say together. We say our goodbyes, and I log off the server. Jordan disconnects us from the call, so it's just us talking.

"So, do you want me to come over now, or….?"

"Well, if you don't mind watching me cook, then yeah." I say, smiling. I bite my lip. I'm slightly nervous, Jordan is coming over again, but this is my time to shine! I can wow him with my cooking. I hope he likes it.

"Okay, I'm going to go to the bathroom, I'll be over in a sec."

"Alright. The door will be unlocked, don't bother knocking, just let yourself in." I say.

"Kay, see you in a bit." Jordan says, then hangs up the call.

I take my headphones off and take a deep breath. Whew. Here we go, gonna cook for Jordan.


End file.
